DANGEROUS DRUGS ACT OF 1972 (R.A. NO. 6425); SECTIONS 15 AND 20 THEREOF AS AMENDED BY R.A. NO. 7659.
In People vs. Martin Simon y Sunga, (G.R. No. 93028), decided on 29 July 1994, this Court ruled as follows: (1) Provisions of R.A. No. 7659 which are favorable to the accused shall be given retroactive effect pursuant to Article 22 of the Revised Penal Code. (2) Where the quantity of the dangerous drug involved is less than the quantities stated in the first paragraph of Section 20 of R.A. No. 6425, the penalty to be imposed shall range from prision correccional to reclusion temporal, and not reclusion perpetua. The reason is that there is an overlapping error, probably through oversight in the drafting, in the provisions on the penalty of reclusion perpetua as shown by its dual imposition, i.e., as the minimum of the penalty where the quantity of the dangerous drugs involved is more than those specified in the first paragraph of the amended Section 20 and also as the maximum of the penalty where the quantity of the dangerous drugs involved is less than those so specified in the first paragraph. (3) Considering that the aforesaid penalty of prision correccional to reclusion temporal shall depend upon the quantity of the dangerous drugs involved, each of the component penalties thereof — prision correccional, prision mayor, and reclusion temporal — shall be considered as a principal imposable penalty depending on the quantity, such that the quantity of the drugs enumerated in the second paragraph should then be divided into three, with the resulting quotient, and double or treble the same, as the bases for determining the appropriate component penalty. (4) The modifying circumstances in the Revised Penal Code may be appreciated to determine the proper period of the corresponding imposable penalty or even to effect its reduction by one or more degrees; provided, however, that in no case should such graduation of penalties reduce the imposable penalty lower than prision correccional. (5) In appropriate instances, the Indeterminate Sentence Law shall be applied and considering that R.A. No. 7659 has unqualifiedly adopted the penalties under the Revised Penal Code with their technical signification and effects, then the crimes under the Dangerous Drugs Act shall now be considered as crimes punished by the Revised Penal Code; hence, pursuant to Section 1 of the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the indeterminate penalty which may be imposed shall be one whose maximum shall be within the range of the imposable penalty and whose minimum shall be within the range of the penalty next lower in degree to the imposable penalty. With the foregoing as our touchstones, and it appearing that the quantity of the shabu recovered from the accused in this case is only 0.0958 gram, the imposable penalty under the second paragraph of Section 20 of R.A. No. 6425, as further amended by Section 17 of R.A. No. 7659, should be prision correccional. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the accused may then be sentenced to suffer an indeterminate penalty ranging from six (6) months of arresto mayor as minimum to six (6) years of prision correccional as maximum.
ELEMENTS OF EVIDENT PREMEDITATION
(1) The time when the offender determined to commit the crime; (2) an act manifestly indicating that the offender had clung to his determination; and (3) sufficient lapse of time between the determination and the execution to allow the offender to reflect on the consequences of his act. (PP -vs- ROGELIO GALAM, Accused-Appellant. G.R. No. 114740, Feb. 15, 2000)
DATE OF EFFECTIVITY OF RA 7659, ETC.
Republic Act No. 7659 took effect on 31 December 1993. Accordingly, the said law only applies to crimes defined therein, including rape, which were committed after its effectivity. It cannot be applied retroactively because, to do so, would go against the constitutional prohibition on ex post facto laws. For this reason, in order for the death penalty to be imposable, it is incumbent upon the prosecution to establish beyond a shadow of doubt that the case of the accused is already covered by Republic Act No. 7659.
AN EX POST FACTO LAW HAS BEEN DEFINED AS ONE WHICH
(a) makes criminal an act before the passage of the law and which was innocent when done, and punishes such an act;
(b) aggravate a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed;
(c) changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed;
(d) alters the legal rules of evidence, and authorizes conviction upon less or different testimony than the law required at the time of the commission of the offense;
(e) assuming to regulate civil rights and remedies only, in effect imposes penalty or deprivation of a right for something which when done was lawful; and
(f) deprives person accused of a crime of some lawful protection to which he has become entitled, such as the protection of a former conviction or acquittal, or a proclamation of amnesty. (PP -vs- CHARITO ISUG MAGBANUA, G.R. No. 128888, Dec. 3, 1999)
