Atty. Cerfranz A. Boniel

04/04/2022

Petition granted.

Now a notary public for and in the City of Cebu.

30/03/2022

Wait for it to fall. 🥭

Fruits arising from trees in adjacent land must "naturally" fall on your property before it be considered yours.

Article 681 of the Civil Code, provides: "Fruits naturally falling upon adjacent land belong to the owner of said land."

25/03/2022

Conversion to Islam does not operate to exculpate the parties from bigamy.

An interesting, albeit not novel, case.

The Supreme Court (SC) has held that a party to a civil marriage who converts to Islam and contracts another marriage, despite the first marriage's subsistence, is guilty of bigamy. The spouse in the subsequent marriage is also guilty of bigamy.

The following elements of bigamy are attendant in such a case, namely: a) that the offender has been legally married; b) that the first marriage has not been legally dissolved or in case his or her spouse is absent, the absent spouse could not yet be presumed dead, according to the Civil code; c) that he contracts a second or subsequent marriage; and d) that the second or subsequent marriage has all the essential requisites for validity.

The SC likewise instructed that:

✅ Civil Code/Family Code governs marriages where either party is non-Muslim and which were not solemnized in Muslim rites.

✅ Muslim Code applies to marriages, their nature, consequences, and incidents between fellow Muslims, between a male Muslim and a non-Muslim solemnized in Muslim rites, between spouses who both converted to Islam after their marriage, and between a male Muslim and a non-Muslim entered into prior to the Code's effectivity.

✅ Under the Muslim Code, as a rule, a married Muslim cannot marry another. In exceptional cases, a married Muslim man may do so, not more than four at a time, if "he can deal with them with equal companionship and just treatment enjoined by Islamic law."

✅ If a Muslim man did intend to marry another, the Muslim Code requires his wife's/wives' knowledge of the impending subsequent marriage. If the wife/wives objects, an Agama Arbitration Council and, subsequently, the Shariah Court shall decide whether or not to sustain such objection.

✅ In effect, a Muslim man's subsequent marriage without the knowledge of his wife is likewise constitutive of bigamy.

11/03/2022

Debt collectors are prohibited from engaging into unfair collection practices.

Anti-Debt Harassment

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prohibits the cilollectors from engaging in unfair collection practices. The following acts are considered to be malicious and/or unreasonable collection practices, to wit:

(a) the use or threat of violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person;

(b) the use of obscenities, insults, or profane language which amount to a criminal act or offense under applicable laws;

(c) disclosure of the names of credit cardholders who allegedly refuse to pay debts, except as allowed under the law;

(d) threat to take any action that cannot legally be taken;

(e) communicating or threat to communicate to any person credit information which is known to be false, including failure to communicate that a debt is being disputed;

(f) any false representation or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt or to obtain information concerning a cardholder; and

(g) making contact at unreasonable/inconvenient times or hours which shall be defined as contact before 6 a.m. or after 10 p.m., unless the account is past due for more than 60 days or the cardholder has given express permission or said times are the only reasonable or convenient opportunities for contact;

h) accessing the debtors’ phone book/contacts’ list for purposes of sending them messages in the event of untimely and/or non-payment;

i) posting the debtors’ personal and sensitive personal information online for purposes of shaming them;

j) threatening debtors with death and physical injuries if they fail to settle their account balances; and

k) using profane language through text message directly sent to the debtors and to the debtors’ references for purposes of shaming them, may constitute violations of the following laws, rules and regulations, as may be applicable.

References:

RA No. 10175 (on Illegal Access & Cyber Libel)
RA No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act
Revised Penal Code (on Threats, Coercion & Unjust Vexation)
BSP Circular No. 454
SEC Memo Circular 18, s. 2019

📷 MoneyAware

07/03/2022

Carnal knowledge (sexual in*******se) with a minor under 16 years old, may now be considered as R**e.

Carnal knowledge (sexual in*******se) with a minor under 16 years old, may now be considered as R**e.

The President signed into law Republic Act No. 11648, amending the Anti-R**e Act of 1997, raising the minimum age of sexual consent to 16.

Previously, carnal knowledge with minor not less than 12 years old may only be considered as r**e if it is made with the use of force or intimidation, when the minor is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious, or it is made by means of fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority. With the amendment, it is now considered Statutory R**e having carnal knowledge with minors under age 16 even sans those circumstances.

The amendatory law likewise provided that there is no criminal liability even if the person is under 16, as long as their partner is not more than three years older and the sexual act is consensual and non-abusive. The exception does not apply if the victim is under 13 years old.

03/03/2022

Threshold amount of Small Claims cases is now ₱1,000,000.00.

The Supreme Court issued the Rules on Expedited Procedures in First Level Courts (A.M. No. 08-8-7-SC) authorizing such increase. The claim or demand may be for money owed under contracts of lease, loan and other credit accommodations, services, and sale of personal property. The recovery of personal property is excluded, unless made subject of a compromise agreement between the parties.

Nevertheless, the enforcement of barangay amicable settlement agreements and arbitration awards where the money claim does not exceed ₱1,000,000.00 is likewise covered.

18/01/2021

LOOK: The NBI-7 arrested on January 13, 2021, retired Army Colonel Edwin Layese, who is said to be one of the gunmen behind the killing of Lawyer Joey Luis Wee in Cebu City last November 2020.

The NBI-7 said on Monday, January 18, that Layese also happens to be the gunman behind the ambush-slay attempt of another lawyer, Joseph Gupana, in Lapu-Lapu City in October 2020. Investigators believe that Layese was hired to kill Wee and Gupana. | via Morexette Marie Erram

14/12/2020