Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
*
G.R. No. 107508. April 25, 1996.
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* FIRST DIVISION.
492
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493
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KAPUNAN, J.:
494
495
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1 CA Rollo, p. 28.
2 Rollo, pp. 2128.
3 Id., at 3031.
496
II
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EVIDENCE.
III
IV
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4 Id., at 1011.
5 The Negotiable Instruments Law of the Philippines was patterned
after the draft approved by the Commissioner on Uniform State Laws in
the United States. (Agbayani, Commentaries and Jurisprudence on the
COMMERCIAL LAWS OF THE PHILIPPINES, Vol. 1, pp. 99100.)
497
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6 Rollo, p. 11.
7 Agbayani, Commentaries and Jurisprudence on the COMMERCIAL
LAWS OF THE PHILIPPINES, Vol. 1, 1992 ed., p. 403.
8 Nickles, Negotiable Instruments and other related Commercial Paper,
1993 2nd ed., p. 168.
498
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A. Material Alterations:
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499
B. Immaterial Alterations:
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11 Id., at 404405.
500
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x x x.
It is an accepted concept, besides being a negotiable
instrument itself, that a TCAA check by its very nature is the
medium of exchange of governments (sic) instrumentalities or
agencies. And as (a) safety measure, every government office o(r)
agency (is) assigned TCAA checks bearing different number
series.
A concrete example is that of the disbursements of the Ministry
of Education and Culture. It is issued by the Bureau of Treasury
sizeable bundles of checks in booklet form with serial numbers
different from other government office or agency. Now, for
fictitious payee to succeed in its malicious intentions to defraud
the government, all it need do is to get hold of a TCAA Check and
have the serial numbers of portion (sic) thereof changed or altered
to make it appear that the same was issued by the MEC.
Otherwise, stated, it is through the serial numbers that (a)
TCAA Check is determined to have 12
been issued by a particular
office or agency of the government.
xxx
xxx
If the purpose of the serial number is merely to identify the
issuing government office or agency, its alteration in this case had
no material effect whatsoever on the integrity of the check. The
identity of the issuing government office or agency was not
changed thereby and the amount of the check was not charged
against the account of another government office or agency which
had no liability under the check. The owner and issuer of the check
is boldly and clearly printed on its face, second line from the top:
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE, and below the
name of the payee
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12 Rollo, p. 78.
501
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502
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15 Ibid.
16 R.J. Francisco, Evidence, 1993 ed., p. 505.
The due execution of a document could be proved through the testimony of (1) the
person who executed it (2) the person before whom its execution was
acknowledged or (3) any person who was present and saw it executed and
delivered, or who, after its execution and delivery, saw it and recognized the
signatures, or by a person to whom the parties to the instrument had previously
confessed the execution thereof . . . .
503
The award of attorneys fees lies within the discretion of the court
and depends upon the circumstances of each case. However, the
discretion of the court to award attorneys fees under Article 2208
of the Civil Code of the Philippines demands factual, legal and
equitable justification, without which the award is a conclusion
without a premise and improperly left to speculation and
conjecture. It becomes a violation of the proscription against the
imposition of a penalty on the right to litigate (Universal
Shipping Lines, Inc. v.
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504
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Judgment affirmed.
o0o
505
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