Sunday, February 17, 2013

Poetic justice: when murder rhymes with detention

Page 582, The Revised Penal Code, Book Two, 2008 Edition, by Reyes:


I like the word irrefragably as used by the ponente, Justice Callejo, but an alarm bell went off when he cited Article 268. My first thought was that it was a typo by Reyes because kidnapping is Art. 267 while Art. 268 is about illegal detention. Checking the decision at  Philippine Report Online revealed that Reyes correctly copied the article.

But working back a few paragraphs shows that in fact the ponente was talking about Article 267, and not Article 268:


Somehow it is a case of poetic license: Article 268 rhymes with Article 248. Does that make Justice Callejo a poet Justice?

Update, March 4, 2013: Justice Regalado in his book Criminal Law Conspectus explained that in fact Article 268 is also about kidnapping but the epigraph made it confusing. So there, I caught myself.

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