7/22/2019 US VS Pons

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The United States VS Juan Pons

GR NO. L-11530

ISSUE FACTS RULING

Petitioner: Juan Pons

Respondent: The United States

Issue:

1. W/N the court can look to legislativejournals as proof of when theadjournment of Legislature happened

2. W/N the court can go behind thelegislative journals to determine thedate of adjournment

Gabino Beliso, Juan Pons and JacintoLacarte were charged with the crime ofillegal importation of Opium.

Juan Pons and Gabino Beliso weretried separately. Both were foundguilty and both appealed but Belisolater withdrew his appeal.

Pons questioned the validity of Act.2381 and offered to prove that the lastday of the special session of thePhilippine Legislature for 1914 was the28th day of February; that Act No.2381, under which Pons must bepunished if found guilty, was notpassed or approved on the 28th ofFebruary but on March 1 of that year;

and that, therefore, the same is nulland void.

1. Yes. Section 275 of the Code of Civil Procedureprovides that the existence of the "official acts of thelegislative, executive, and judicial departments ofthe United States and of the Philippine Islands ...shall be judicially recognized by the court without

the introduction of proof

Official documents may be proved through:

The proceedings of the Philippine Commission, orof any legislative body that may be provided for thePhilippine Islands, or of Congress, by the journalsof those bodies or of either house thereof

2. The court did not go behind the legislative journalswhen such journals are already clear and explicit(about when Act No. 2381 was adjourned). to

inquiry into the veracity (accuracy) of the journalsof the Philippine Legislature, when they are, as wehave said, clear and explicit, would be to interfere

with the legitimate powers and functions of theLegislature. The journals already say that theLegislature adjourned at 12 midnight on February28, 1914.