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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