THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, VS. MARIANO TERRADO, PEDRO TERRADO, AND CASIMIRO FLORES, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.

APPEAL from the orders of
the Court of First Instance of Camarines Sur, all dated April 15, 1963, which dismissed Criminal
Case No. 7613 of said court, entitled: 
“The People of the Philippines, plaintiff, versus Mariano Terrado, et al., defendants”; Criminal Case No. 7614,
entitled:  “The People of the
Philippines, plaintiff, versus Remedios Gundran, et al., defendants”; and Criminal Case No.
7615, entitled:  “The People of the
Philippines, plaintiff, ver­sus Gertrudes Obo, et al., defendants”, on the ground
that “the crimes committed by the accused are either perjury defined under
Section 129 of the Commonwealth Act No. 141 and punished under Art. 183 of the
Revised Penal Code, or offenses relating to ‘unlawful occupation and
destruction of public forest’ defined and punished under Section 2751 of the
Revised Administrative Code, as amended by Acts 115 and 171″ and had
already prescribed.

The appellant maintains
that the facts charged in the informations constitute
the crimes of falsification of public documents, defined and penalized under
Art. 171, par. 4, of the Revised Penal Code, and that the criminal actions have
not yet prescribed.

The records of the cases
show that in November, 1951 and May, 1952, Gertrudes
Obo, Remedios Gundran, and
Mar­iano Terrado applied for, and were issued free
patents for contiguous parcels of land situated in Barrio Paculago,
Ragay, Camarines Sur, each containing an area of more than 23 hectares, and
more particularly known as Lots 7, 8 and 9 of Plan Psu-125902,
respectively.  As the said parcels of
land were allegedly forest land and, hence, not dis­posable, Mariano Terrado, Remedios Gundran, and Gertrudes Obo were charged
before the Court of First Instance of Camarines Sur on March 13, 1962, in three separate informations for falsification of public documents, defined
and penalized under Art. 171 of the Revised Penal Code, docketed therein as
Criminal Case Nos. 7613, 7614, and 7615, respectively, together with Pedro Terrado, a licensed private land surveyor; Casimiro Flores, a public land inspector of the Bureau of
Lands; and Bruno Gundran, the District Land Officer
of District No. 10 of the Bureau of Lands, for having conspired, confederated,
cooperated together, and helped one another, through false and fraudulent
misrepresentations in wilfully, unlawfully, and
feloniously with full knowledge of their falsity, preparing or causing to be
prepared, documents containing false narration of facts, more particularly, the
(1) applications for free patent; (2) notices of application for free patent;
(3) final inspection reports; and (4)
first indorsements
of District Land Officer Bruno Gundran, wherein they
made it appear to the Director of Lands and the Secretary of Agriculture and
Natural Resources that the applicants possessed all the necessary
qualifications and had complied with all the requirements of law to entitle
them to a free patent, when in truth and in fact, as they all fully well knew,
all their manifestations were false and fraudulent and that the said applicants had not complied with any or all of the
requirements of the law to entitle them to a free patent.  The informations
further alleged that Casimiro Flores and Bruno Gundran had taken advantage of their respective official
positions in making the un­truthful statements. 
Before the arraignment, the defend­ants filed separate motions to quash
the informations on the ground that the crimes
charged in the informations do not constitute the
offense of falsification of public docu­ments, and that the same had already
prescribed.  After proper hearing, the
trial court dismissed the informations as
aforesaid.  Hence, the present recourse.

While the informations sufficiently alleged the commission of
falsification of public documents under Art. 171 of the Revised Penal Code, the
offenses alleged to have been committed have already prescribed since the
preparation and submission of false affidavits in support of a petition or
claim respecting lands of the public domain is also punishable as perjury under
Sec. 129 of Commonwealth Act No. 141, as amended, which reads, as follows:

“Sec. 129.  Any person
who present or causes to be presented, or cooperates in the presentation of,
any false application, declaration, or evidence, or makes or causes to be made
or cooperates in the making of a false affidavit in support of any peti­tion,
claim, or objection respecting lands of the public domain, shall be deemed
guilty of perjury and punished as such.”

Falsification of public documents is punishable by prision mayor and a fine not to exceed P5,000.00.^[1] Prision mayor is an afflictive penalty,^[2]
and hence, prescribes in 15 years.^[3]
Perjury, upon the other hand, is punishable
by arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period,^[4] or from four (4) months and one (1) day to
two (2) years and four (4) months, which is correctional in nature,^[5] and prescribes in ten (10) years.^[6]
However, Public Act No. 3326, as amended
by Act 3585 and Act 3763, provides that “violations penalized by special
laws shall, unless otherwise provided in such acts, prescribe in
accordance with the following rules:  (a)
after a year for offenses punished only by a fine or by imprisonment for not more than one month, or both; (b)
after four years for those punished by imprisonment for more than one
month, but less than two years; (c)
after eight years for those punished by imprisonment for two years or more, but
less than six years; and (d) after twelve years for any other offense punished
by im­prisonment for six years or more, except the crime of treason,
which shall prescribe after twenty years”, so that perjury which is
punishable by imprisonment of from four (4) months and one (1) day to two (2)
years and four (4) months prescribes after eight years.

Penal statutes,
substantive and remedial or procedural are, by consecrated rule, to be
strictly applied against the government
and liberally in favor of the accused.^[7] As it would be more favorable to the
herein accused to apply Section 129 of Commonwealth Act 141 and Act 3326, as
amended, in connection with the prescriptive period of the offenses charged,
the same should be applied.  Considering,
therefore, that the offenses were alleged to have been com­mitted during the
period from May 15, 1952 to February 2, 1953, with respect to Criminal Case No.
7613; from May 28, 1952 to August 18, 1952, with respect to Criminal Case No.
7614; and from November 16, 1951 to February 21, 1952, with respect to Criminal
Case No. 7615, and the informations were filed only
on March 13, 1962, or more than eight (8) years after the said offenses were
allegedly committed, the lower court correctly ruled that the crimes in
question had already prescribed.

WHEREFORE, the judgment appealed from should
be, as it is hereby, AFFIRMED.  Without costs.

SO ORDERED.

Makasiar, (Chairman), Guerrero, Abad Santos, De Castro, and
Escolin, JJ., concur.

Aquino, J., see dissent.

^[1]
Art. 171, Revised Penal Code.

^[2]
Art. 25, Ibid.

^[3]
Art. 90, Ibid.

^[4]
Art. 183, Ibid.

^[5]
Art. 25, Ibid.

^[6]
Art. 90, Ibid.

^[7]
People vs. Elkanish,
90 Phil. 53; People vs. Yu Hai, 99 Phil. 725.

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