Pp v. Carballo- Crim Digest



Facts:
                December 20, 1927; sentenced by the Court of First Instance of Manila in criminal case No. 35540, to six years  and one day of prision mayor for the crime of bigamy; that he was granted a conditional pardon by the Governor-General, which was accepted by him on January 12, 1929; and that “the said accused, in or about and during the period from October 1, 1929 to December 1, 1929, in the City of Manila, Philippine Islands, did then and there wilfully and unlawfully commit violations of section 874 of Revised Ordinances of the City of Manila, for which violations he was again sentenced by the Court of First Instance of Manila in criminal cases Nos. 40037, 40038 and 40039 to pay a fine of P65 in each and every one of said cases, with the corresponding subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency, which sentence was affirmed by the Honorable Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands on March 18, 1931, in GE Nos. 34065, 34067 and 34066, respectively, the said Ponciano Carballo thereby committing wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously a violation of the conditions of the aforesaid pardon accepted by him as above set forth.”

Issue:
                Whether or not the appellant be convicted under article 159 of said Code granted that the violation of a conditional pardon was not a crime before the revised penal code took effect.

Held:
                No.

Ratio:
                Penal laws have no retroactive effect except in so far as they favour a person guilty of a felony. An act which when committed was not a crime cannot be made so by statute without violating the constitutional inhibition as to ex post facto laws. The judgement appealed from must therefore be reversed, and an, order for the release of the appellant issued. So ordered.

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