No posting

No posting for today. Filial obligation needs my attention.

Saturday typos, 28 June 2014

From The Insurance Code of the Philippines, Annotated, 2010 Edition by De Leon and De Leon:

Page 47 -

Page 379 -

Also from page 379 -

I remember Dean Joan Largo, my professor in Consti I, whenever I cross path with "express and/or implied". I asked her during one meeting of our class why it should be "express and/or implied" and not "expressed and/or implied". I think there is no clear cut explanation on the matter. But the accepted terminology is "express".

Attorney at will

In the Philippines, as in the US,  attorney refers to a lawyer. But an attorney does not always need to be a lawyer as exemplified in a line about lawyers among Cebuanos: "'Torney, abogado diay ka?" I think it has an equivalent in other Philippine languages. Go, let a Cebuano or a Tagalog lawyer explain that. It roughly means, "Attorney, so you are indeed a lawyer?"

According to the Free Dictionary, an attorney is:

attorney (əˈtɜːnɪ)

n

1. (Law) a person legally appointed or empowered to act for another

2. (Law) US a lawyer qualified to represent clients in legal proceedings

3. (Professions) US a lawyer qualified to represent clients in legal proceedings

4. (Law) South African a solicitor

5. (Professions) South African a solicitor

I think Paras subscribed to the attorney-is-a-lawyer view. And he introduced a superfluous, if not conflicting, idea when discussing Article 784 of the Civil Code.

Here's the article from page 46 of Paras' book Civil Code of the Philippines Annotated, Vol. III, 2013 Edition:

 Here's his discussion on page 46 and 47:

Up to this point he has hewed to the common explanation of the article. And he should have stopped there. As Ruben F. Balane is prone to say, "he should have left well enough alone."

Alas, he added a further comment which brought to the fore his attorney-is-a-lawyer view:

The attorney in Article 784 is not necessarily a lawyer. The attorney here is the first definition of the word in the Free Dictionary as seen above.

Article 784 of the Philippine New Civil Code was lifted from Articulo 670 of the Codigo Civil:

El testamento es un acto personalísimo: no podrá dejarse su formación, en todo ni parte, al arbitrio de un tercero, ni hacerse por medio de comisario o mandatario.
          Tampoco podrá dejarse al arbitrio de un tercero la subsistencia del nombramiento de herederos o legatarios, ni la designación de las porciones en que hayan de suceder cuando sean instituidos nominalmente.

A comisario or a mandatario is not always a lawyer.

Saturday typo, 21 June 2014

From the Essentials of Transportation and Public Utilities Law, 2011 Edition by Aquino and Hernando:

Page 284 -

Page 337 -

Page 354 -

Same page -

Should we lower the tax rate?

I would have posted this in my "all purpose" blog which has not been updated for sometime due to this blog. But this topic has a bearing on the taxation subject in the 3rd year of law school.

Lawmakers are scrambling to endear themselves with the working class and the low income groups. They are shouting for every voters to hear that they favor reducing the income tax rate to 25% from 32%. The BIR insists that it will mean a loss of several billions of revenue. Proponents of the reduction said the loss could be corrected through better collection.

We've heard these arguments before especially just before election time. Pampapogi to get the votes of the would-be beneficiaries.

Who are the people to be benefited by a reduction in the tax rate? One of them would be me, of course, and other working individuals. Thanks, Mr. Congressman. But who really get to be most benefited? Who else but the rich friends of our lawmakers.

 Here's the tax rate from the BIR website:

An employee who is in the P140K to P250K bracket or below will not get any benefit. Those earning millions will stand to benefit more.

For instance at the present rate, one who is earning P10M will pay P125K for the first P500K and P3,040K for the rest. Or a total of P3,165,000.

If the tax bracket is lowered to the maximum of 25%, the congressman's rich friend will only be paying a total of P2,437,500.00.  The revenue loss will be P705,000.

I propose instead that the top bracket be increased from P500,000 to P1M and the lower brackets be reduced accordingly.

And to offset the revenue loss, because there will still be, let's add another bracket of, say, P5M and a tax rate of 35% for income in excess of P5M.

But then that will incur the ire of the rich friends and contributors of our lawmakers.

Saturday typos, 14 June 2014

On page 89 of the Essentials of Transportation and Public Utilities Law, 2011 Edition by Aquino and Hernando:

Should be Codigo Civil and sin ora.

Testator reaching out from the grave

I am looking forward to my class in succession. My main text will be Paras's Civil Code of the Philippines, Annotated, Vol. III, 2013 Edition. As an aside, why Paras's and not Paras'. Because Strunk says it should be that way.

My reference will be Balane's Jottings and Jurisprudence in Civil Law (Succession), 2010 Edition.

Article 900 of the Civil Code of the Philippines, first paragraph,  says:

If the only survivor is the widow or  widower, she or he shall be entitled to one-half of the hereditary estate of the deceased spouse, and the testator may freely dispose of the other half.

If there is already a widow or widower then the testator is already dead. Right? How then can the testator freely dispose of the other half?

Update: OK I take back what I said about Paras's and not Paras'. Paras' it should be for me from now on. Strunk is kind of outdated already but should be a good start for everyone. See the discussion of Steven Pinker here.

Saturday typos, 7 June 2014

From the Essentials of Transportation and Public Utilities Law, 2011 Edition by Aquino and Hernando:

Page 240 -

Page 245 -

Page 266 -

Page 295 -

Page 301 -

Propositus, prepositus, praepositus

In reading ahead for my third year subject of Wills and Succession I feel that reserva troncal will be an exciting but contentious topic.

Here's how Paras in Civil Code of the Philippines, Annotated, Vol. III, 2013 Edition diagrammed the matter on page 314:

And here's the diagram by Ruben F. Balane in his book Jottings and Jurisprudence in Civil Law (Succession) 2010 Edition on page 363:

Similar diagrams but on the next page Balane uses Prepositus while Paras uses Propositus.

I checked up on Jurado and he is on the side of Paras. Vitug uses Praepositus  from which, I think, Balane got his variant of the Latin word.

A google search shows that Paras and Jurado are correct. Propositus according to Dictionary.com means the person  from whom a line of descent is derived on a genealogical table.  

Praepositus means commander. chief, provost, etc. (see here and Meriam-Webster Dictionary).