Atty. Franchette Monique I. Abalde-Virtual Office

05/09/2024

The Supreme Court has ruled that in determining whether marital infidelity caused psychological violence under the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act, criminal intent is presumed in the act of marital infidelity.

Read more at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-criminal-intent-to-cause-anguish-presumed-in-marital-infidelity-under-anti-vawc-act/

20/06/2024

The Supreme Court has issued Memorandum Order No. 72-2024 creating a specific channel, through [email protected], where the public can send actionable information on violations of corruption laws and ethics rules involving Justices, judges, and court personnel.

Read more at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/memorandum-order-no-72-2024/

25/05/2024

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, Chairperson of the SC Committee on Access to Justice in Underserved Areas and the SC Committee on Human Rights, delivered the keynote address at the National Presentation – Stories from the Field: Overcoming Barriers to Access to Justice through Grassroots Action, held on May 22, 2024 at Hive Hotel and Convention Place in Quezon City.

Speaking on developmental legal aid and cause-oriented lawyering, Senior Associate Justice Leonen underscored, “The point of being a lawyer is not to maintain an unjust status quo but to change our world.”

Further, he stated that access to justice does not only mean that expedient and legal services are afforded to the underprivileged and marginalized. He urged lawyers to take their “understanding of access to justice to another level and acknowledge that legal aid as a mode of improving access to justice scratches only the surface of systemic injustices and issues that many marginalized groups, identities, and communities continue to face.”

10/05/2024

The Supreme Court has declared that red-tagging, vilification, labelling, and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty, or security, which may justify the issuance of a writ of amparo.

READ: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-red-tagging-threatens-right-to-life-liberty-and-security/

10/05/2024

Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier gave an inspirational message at the opening of the three-day 2024 Asia and the Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) and 2024 National Convention of the Philippine Women Judges Association (PWJA) held on May 8-10, 2024 in Cebu City. Justice Lazaro-Javier is the current PWJA President and IAWJ Vice-President.

Justice Lazaro-Javier shared her belief that “that through greater cross-border collaborations, we are able to gain insights into the effective practices of each nation and are able to uplift each other towards attaining gender equality. Together, we shall rise for there is nothing stronger than a group of women bonded by the same cause.”

11/03/2024

12/01/2024

SC Grants Permanent Environmental Protection Order to Preserve Forest in Mountain Province |

The Supreme Court has ordered the cessation of bulldozing, cultivating, building of improvements, and other earth-moving activities that cause irreparable damage to a forest zone in Sabangan, Mountain Province.

In a Decision penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Y. Lopez the Court’s Second Division denied the consolidated petitions for review on certiorari filed by Spouses Robles and Rose Maliones, et al. (petitioners). The petitions challenged the rulings of the Court of Appeals (CA) which had affirmed the Regional Trial Court’s (RTC) grant of environmental reliefs under the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases in favor of Mario S. Timario, Jr., et al. (respondents).

In resolving the petitions, the Court upheld the factual findings of the RTC and the CA that there exists an actual or imminent threat that can be attributed to petitioners, including the activities they are conducting on the subject land that violate environmental laws and cause prejudice to the life, health, or property of residents of Barangay Data, Sabangan, Mountain Province.

The Court also affirmed that since the subject land is presumptively part of the public forest, the acts of the petitioners of occupying, fencing off, clearing, planting on, sowing on, and building on the subject land are contrary to the provisions of PD 705, particularly Sections 51, 52, 53, and 78.

The Court added that there is no evidence on record that petitioners obtained or possessed the requisite permits or authorization to enter, occupy, and clear the forest land they claim. In fact, the City Environment and Natural Resources Office expressly declared that petitioners’ earth-moving activities were being done on a portion of the public forest. These facts were not rebutted by the petitioners, held the Court.

The Court also clarified that the present petition under the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases is not the proper remedy to assail the validity of the tax declarations in the name of petitioners, nor to seek the recognition of the native title petitioners claim to have inherited from their predecessors.

Thus, the Court held it shall “refrain from resolving the underlying issues on the ownership of the subject land and the recognition of the parties as indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples in the present environmental case which must be addressed in the proper case and in the correct forum.”

“Nonetheless, this Court is not precluded from granting reliefs available to [respondents], in accordance with Section 1, Rule 5, of the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases,” stressed the Court.

The Court thus made permanent the TEPO earlier issued by the RTC, and issued an EPO, ordering petitioners to cease and desist from bulldozing, cultivating, introducing improvements, other earth-moving activities, cutting trees, kaingin, and other illegal activities that cause irreparable damage to the forest zone and pollution of the soil, water, and the environment.

They were also enjoined from claiming private ownership over the communal forest of Batacang and Am-amoting covered by their tax declarations. Petitioners were likewise ordered to remove their barbed wire fences that restrict the community from the use and enjoyment of the communal forest zone.

Read more at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-grants-permanent-environmental-protection-order-to-preserve-forest-in-mountain-province/.

06/01/2024

SC Issues Rules on Anti-Terrorism Cases |

The Supreme Court has issued the set of procedural rules that shall govern all petitions and applications concerning The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA) and other related laws.

The Rules on the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and Related Laws (A.M. No. 22-02-19-SC), published yesterday in two newspapers of national circulation, will take effect on January 15, 2024. The Rules shall apply to petitions and applications regarding detentions without judicial warrants of arrest, surveillance orders, freeze orders, restrictions on travel, designations, proscriptions, and other court issuances promulgated to implement the ATA and other related laws.

The Rules lays down the procedure to be followed by an individual, organization, association, or group of persons who seek to obtain judicial relief from their designation as terrorist by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) and the issuance of any freeze order by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) as a result of such designation.

The Rules also provides for the issuance of an Order of Proscription by the Court of Appeals (CA), upon a verified petition by the Department of Justice Secretary, declaring as outlawed terrorist any group of persons, organization, or association that commits any of the acts defined and penalized under Sections 4 to 12 of the ATA, or that is organized to engage in terrorism.

The CA may, within 72 hours from the filing of such verified petition, issue ex parte a Preliminary Order of Proscription upon the petitioner’s showing of probable cause that such is necessary to prevent the commission of terrorism. Such issuance empowers the AMLC to investigate, inquire, and examine the bank deposits of the respondent/s and freeze their assets and properties in accordance with the provisions of the ATA. The CA shall then conduct continuous summary hearings and decide the petition within three (3) months, counted from the time it is submitted for resolution. Upon the petitioner’s establishment of clear and convincing evidence, the CA shall issue a Permanent Order of Proscription, which shall be effective for a period of three years from the date of its publication.

The Rules mandates a law enforcement agent or military personnel to secure a prior written surveillance order from the CA to be able to secretly wiretap, overhear and listen to, intercept, screen, read, surveil, record, or collect with the use of any electronic, mechanical, or other equipment or device or technology, or any other suitable ways and means, any private communications, conversation, or messages in whatever form, kind, or nature between members of a judicially-proscribed terrorist organization, as provided in the ATA; between members of a designated person as defined in Section 3(e) of Republic Act No. 10168, or “The Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012;” and any person charged with, or suspected of, committing any of the crimes defined and penalized under the ATA. The Rules likewise sets the grounds for the issuance of a surveillance order as well as its content and effectivity.

Read more at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-issues-rules-on-anti-terrorism-cases/. Read A.M. No. 22-02-19-SC, Rules on the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and Related Laws, at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/rules-on-the-anti-terrorism-act-of-2020-and-related-laws/

06/01/2024

SAVE THE DATE Panyeros/Panyeras🙂

The 4th Leg of the CPRA Rollout will be held on January 26, 2024 at the Mallberry Suites Business Hotel, Cagayan de Oro City.

As per our IBP-Eastern Mindanao Governor, Atty. Peter Neil E. Trinidad this is with 7 units of MCLE CREDIT UNITS for the 8th and previous compliance and its completion shall be considered ONE ATTENDANCE in a REGIONAL CONVENTION for purposes of IBP Lifetime Membership Requirement.

Keynote speaker is Supreme Court Associate Justice Hon. MARVIC MARIO VICTOR F. LEONEN.

Registration link and payment procedures will be through the MyIBP App and the details of which will be posted the soonest.

06/01/2024

📣 Be advised of the following work suspension on January 9, 2023, in view of Proclamation No. 434 declaring January 9, 2024 a Special (non-working) Day in the City of Manila to mark the celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene.

Courts may be reached through their official hotlines and email addresses found at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/court-locator/.

31/12/2023

Wishing everyone a harmonious and prosperous 2024! ❤️

Happy New Year!!!