Read, Think, then Answer

During our second exam in Criminal Law 2, a question is asked:

The Municipality allocated 2 million for the concreting of road in Brgy. Tagakpan. X, a municipal treasurer, authorized the release of 1 million for the purchase of fire truck. Besides, the ordinance for the purchase of fire truck was submitted to the Mayor for approval. Did X commit any crime? Explain.

To this question, I answered:

X did not commit any crime. He did not commit malversation of public funds because, although the fund was allocated for the concreting of road but was used instead for the purchase of fire truck, the fund was nonetheless used for another public purpose. Neither did X commit technical malversation because the ordinance allocating the 2 million was not yet approved. In technical malversation, it is essential that there is a law or ordinance allocating the fund for public use.

I almost had it right. X, of course, committed technical malversation because there was already an approved ordinance allocating the 2 million. The ordinance that was not yet approved refers to the ordinance for the purchase of fire truck.

Modesty aside, I find the question easy to answer. But why did I answer it incorrectly? Simple! I was so in a hurry I misappreciated the facts.

Lesson learned: Read, think, then answer. Never answer, then think later.

Far worse than answering incorrectly, however, is not answering at all. Unfortunately, this happened to me, too, during our Midterm exam in Persons and Family Relations. At least, if your answer is wrong, they give you some credit, however little. But if you have no answer at all, you get nothing.

In my Persons exam, I wasn't able to answer the last essay question. Nine of the ten questions are found on the first page, and I thought that there were only nine questions. Unknown to me, and to some of my classmates, is that there's still a tenth question, which is found on the second page, just above the instruction for the Multiple Choice test type. Those of us who did not answer the last essay question were of the impression that the tenth question was part of the instruction for Multiple Choice. It turned out it was not.

Lesson learned: Look before you leap.

The Criminals' Right

All humans have basic rights. Criminals are humans. Therefore, criminals have basic rights.

This syllogism, although to my mind is valid, is for some hard to accept,  or is simply unacceptable. For how can someone possess a right and yet trample upon another's right? How can someone's constitutional right to due process be protected when other's right to life is violated? Which right should be given more weight? To whom should the balance be tilted?

Take the Vic Siman et al ambush or rub-out or checkpoint-gone-bad (depending on whom you are listening to), which happened in Atimonan, Quezon on January 6, 2013. Vic Siman and 12 others who were with him were believed to be members of a criminal group.

If indeed Vic Siman et al were members of a criminal group, then they shall punished. But how? The answer is, they shall be punished in ways that do not violate the law and the Constitution. The rule of law must be upheld at all times.

That criminals must be pursued is beyond debate. But, to cite Justice Isagani Cruz, “Zeal in the pursuit of criminals cannot ennoble the use of arbitrary methods that the Constitution itself abhors."

5 Law Student Must-Haves

There are people who use a lot of tools to do their work. And there are those who use nothing at all.

As for law students?

Well, there are lots of things a law student brings every day to class. But there are five things that I consider a law student list of must-haves. To be sure, law students could live without these things. But these things are so common a property among law students that they seemed to have become part of what a law student must have:

Blogging in 2012: A Review

Since I started my law studies in June, 2012, I thought 2012 would mean death for my blog. On the contrary, I became more active in blogging. I found a new source of material from studying law. Thus, most of the posts for 2012 have something to do with the law. How did my blogging activity fare in 2012? Here's a review the guys at Wordpress did:

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.



Here's an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 12 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.