PEOPLE V.

PATRICIA 341 SCRA 464

Facts
Patriarca was charged with the crime of murder for the death of Alfredo Arevalo before
RTC Sorsogon docketed as Criminal Case No. 2773. He was also charged with murder
for the killing of one Rudy de Borja and a certain Elmer Cadag under Informations
docketed as Criminal Cases Nos. 2665 and 2672, respectively. The RTC found him
guilty in Criminal Case No. 2773 and sentenced him to suffer the penalty of reclusion
perpetua. Patriarca appealed the decision to the SC.

Patriarca applied for amnesty under Proclamation No. 724 entitled

"Granting Amnesty to Rebels, Insurgents, and All Other Persons Who Have or May Have
Committed Crimes Against Public Order, Other Crimes Committed in Furtherance of Political Ends,
and Violations of the Article of War, and Creating a National Amnesty Commission."
In 1999, his application was favorably granted by the National Amnesty Board
concluding that his activities were done in pursuit of his political beliefs.

Issue:

What is the effect of the grant of amnesty to the conviction of the accused-appellant?

Held:

Amnesty commonly denotes a general pardon to rebels for their treason or other high
political offenses, or the forgiveness which one sovereign grant to the subjects of
another, who have offended, by some breach, the law of nations. Amnesty looks
backward, and abolishes and puts into oblivion, the offense itself; it so overlooks and
obliterates the offense with which he is charged, that the person released by amnesty
stands before the law precisely as though he had committed no offense.
Paragraph 3 of Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code provides that criminal liability is
totally extinguished by amnesty, which completely extinguishes the penalty and all its
effects.
This Court takes judicial notice of the grant of amnesty upon accused-appellant Jose N.
Patriarca, Jr. Once granted, it is binding and effective. It serves to put an end to the
appeal.
Patriarca was acquitted of the crime of murder in Criminal Case No. 2773 while Criminal
Cases Nos. 2665 and 2672 were ordered dismissed

http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2000/sept2000/135457.htm

The person released under an amnesty proclamation stands before the law precisely as
though he had committed no offense. Par. 3, Art. 89, Revised Penal Code, provide that
criminal liability is totally extinguished by amnesty; the penalty and all its effects are
thus extinguished.