Source: http://livinginthephilippines.com/2012-12-03-02-43-50/philippines-legal-form/285-form-no-1-motion-to-quash
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 07:00:45+00:00

Document:
COME NOW defendants, by counsel and unto this Honorable Court, most respectfully move to quash the information filed against the defendants on the ground of lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter.
d) such vagueness and overbreadth likewise amount to an invalid delegation by Congress of legislative power to the courts to determine what acts should be held to be criminal and punishable.
"In some of the States, as well as in England, there exist what are known as common law offenses. In the Philippine Islands no act is a crime unless it is made so by statute. The state having the right to declare what acts are criminal, within certain well defined limitations, has a right to specify what act or acts shall constitute a crime, as well as what act or acts shall constitute a crime, as well as what proof shall constitute prima facie evidence of guilt, and then to put upon the defendant the burden of showing that such act or acts are innocent and are not committed with any criminal intent or intention."(emphasis and underscoring ours, cited in the fairly recent case of Dizon-Pamintuan v. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 111426, July 11, 1994) (emphasis and underscoring ours).
"x x x In the Philippine Islands no act is a crime unless it is made so by law. The law must specify the particular act or acts constituting the crime. If that were not so, the inhabitants could not know when they would be liable to be arrested, tried and punished. Otherwise the mandatory provisions of the law, that all criminal laws shall be prescribed, would prove to be a pitfall and a snare. The inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, whether citizens, denizens or friendly aliens, have a right to know, in advance of arrest, trial and punishment, the particular acts for which they may be so tried. They cannot be arrested and tried, and then be informed for the first time that their acts have been subsequently made a crime, and be punished therefor. x x x"(emphasis and underscoring ours).
"The maxim Nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege has its roots in history. It is in accordance with both centuries of civil law and common law tradition. Moreover, it is an indispensable corollary to a regime of liberty enshrined in our Constitution. It is of the essence then that while anti-social acts should be penalized, there must be a clear definition of the punishable offense as well as the penalty that may be imposed - a penalty, to repeat, that can be fixed by the legislative body, and the legislative body alone. So constitutionalism mandates, with its stress on jurisdictio rather than guvernaculum. The judiciary as the dispenser of justice through law must be aware of the limitation on its own power." (emphasis and underscoring ours).
"x x x It is the statute, not the accusation under it, that prescribes the rule to govern conduct and warns against transgression. x x x No one may be required at peril of life, liberty or property to speculate as to the meaning of penal statutes. All are entitled to be informed as to what the State commands or forbids. x x x" (emphasis and underscoring ours).
Article 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code condemns no SPECIFIC act or omission!Therefore, it does not define any crime or felony.
Moreover, Article 3 of the Revised Penal Code defines felonies (delitos) as "acts or omissions" punishable by law. Article 287, Par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code condemns no specific act or omission! Therefore, it does not define any crime or felony!
f)In People v. Carreon, G.R. No. L-17920, May 30, 1962, accused was convicted of unjust vexation by the act of threatening the complainant by holding and pushing his shoulder and uttering to the latter in a threatening tone the following words: "What inspection did you make to my sister in the mountain when you are not connected with the Bureau of Education?"
From the above-cited cases, it clearly appears that Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code does not punish a specific act.Instead, any and all kind of acts that are not specifically covered by any other provision of the Revised Penal Code and which may cause annoyance, irritation, vexation, torment, distress or disturbance to the mind of the person to whom it is directed may be punished as unjust vexation; art. 287, par. 2 of the revised penal code suffers from A CONGENITAL DEFECT OF vagueness and must be stricken down.
"The limitation on the period of "election campaign"or "partisan political activity" calls for a more intensive scrutiny. According to Republic Act No. 4880: "It is unlawful for any person whether or not a voter or candidate, or for any group or association of persons, whether or not a political party or political committee, to engage in an election campaign or partisan political activity except during the period of one hundred twenty days immediately preceding an election involving a public office voted for at large and ninety days immediately preceding an election for any other elective public office. The term 'candidate' refers to any person aspiring for or seeking an elective public office regardless of whether or not said person has already filed his certificate of candidacy or has been nominated by any political party as its candidate. The term 'election campaign' of 'partisan political activity' refers to acts designed to have a candidate elected or not or promote the candidacy of a person or persons to a public office . . ."
"If that is all there is to that provision, it suffers from the fatal constitutional infirmity of vagueness and may be stricken down. x x x x x x x x x x x x.
"There are still constitutional questions of a serious character then to be faced. The practices which the act identifies with "election campaign" or"partisan political activity" must be such that they are free from the taint of being violative of free speech, free press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association. What removes the sting from constitutional objection of vagueness is the enumeration of the acts deemed included in the terms "election campaign" or "partisan political activity." (emphasis and underscoring ours).
"That the terms of a penal statute creating a new offense must be sufficiently explicit to inform those who are subject to it what conduct on their part will render them liable to its penalties is a well-recognized requirement, consonant alike with ordinary notions of fair play and the settled rules of law; and a statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application violates the first essential of due process of law." (emphasis and underscoring ours).
"The sole remaining inquiry, therefore, is the certainty or uncertainty of the text in question, that is, whether the words 'that it is hereby made unlawful for any person willfully ... to make any unjust or unreasonable rate or charge in handling or dealing in or with any necessaries,' constituted a fixing by Congress of an ascertainable standard of guilt and are adequate to inform persons accused of violation thereof of the nature and cause of the accusation against them. That they are not, we are of opinion, so clearly results from their mere statement as to render elaboration on the subject wholly unnecessary. Observe that the section forbids no specific or definite act. It confines the subject matter of the investigation which it authorizes to no element essentially inhering in the transaction as to which it provides. It leaves open, therefore, the widest conceivable inquiry, the scope of which no one can foresee and the result of which no one can foreshadow or adequately guard against. In fact, we see no reason to doubt the soundness of the observation of the court below in its opinion to the effect that, to attempt to enforce the section would be the exact equivalent of an effort to carry out a statute which in terms merely penalized and punished all acts detrimental to the public interest when unjust and unreasonable in the estimation of the court x x x (emphasis and underscoring ours).
It shall be unlawful for three or more persons to assemble, except at a public meeting of citizens, on any of the sidewalks, street corners, vacant lots, or mouths of alleys, and there conduct themselves in a manner annoying to persons passing by, or occupants of adjacent buildings. Whoever violates any of the provisions of this section shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars ($50.00), or be imprisoned not less than one (1) nor more than thirty (30) days or both. Section 901-L6, Code of Ordinances of the City of Cincinnati. (emphasis and underscoring ours).
Conduct that annoys some people does not annoy others. Thus, the ordinance is vague, not in the sense that it requires a person to conform his conduct to an imprecise but comprehensible normative standard, but rather in the sense that no standard of conduct is specified at all. As a result, men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning. Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391.
It is said that the ordinance is broad enough to encompass many types of conduct clearly within the city's constitutional power to prohibit. And so, indeed, it is. The city is free to prevent people from blocking sidewalks, obstructing traffic, littering streets, committing assaults, or engaging in countless other forms of antisocial conduct. It can do so through the enactment and enforcement of ordinances directed with reasonable specificity toward the conduct to be prohibited. It cannot constitutionally do so through the enactment and enforcement of an ordinance whose violation may entirely depend upon whether or not a policeman is annoyed.(emphasis and underscoring ours).
ARTICLE 287, PAR. 2 OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE IS AN INVALID DELEGATION OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER to DEFINE what acts should be held to be criminal and punishable.
Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code fails to set an immutable and ascertainable standard of guilt, but leaves such standard to the variant and changing views and notions of different judges or courts which are called upon to enforce it. Instead of defining the specific acts or omissions punished, it leaves to the courts the power to determine what acts or types of conduct constitute "unjust vexation". Moreover, liability under the said provision is also made dependent upon the varying degrees of sensibility and emotions of people. It depends upon whether or not another is vexed or annoyed by said act or conduct. As previously intimated, one cannot be convicted of a violation of a law that fails to set up an immutable and an ascertainable standard of guilt.
Therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code, being facially unconstitutional, cannot be a basis of any criminal prosecution. As such, there is no offense to speak of and consequently, this Honorable Court cannot acquire any jurisdiction whatsoever to try the defendants of the charge of "unjust vexation".
WHEREFORE, it view of all the foregoing, it is most respectfully prayed that the information be quashed, and defendants discharged.

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