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* EN BANC.
468
LEONEN, J., Dissenting Opinion:
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469
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BERSAMIN, J.:
This case is the third in the trilogy of cases that started
with the 2000 case of Cuevas v. Muñoz,1 which dealt with
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470
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471
Antecedents
As factual antecedents, the CA narrated the following:
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472
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473
London.
474
475
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Invoking the Agreement Between the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines and the Government of Hong
Kong for the Surrender of Accused and Convicted Persons
(RP-HK
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476
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Meantime, on November 22, 1999,9 the DOJ,
representing the HKSAR, filed a petition in the RTC for
the surrender of
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7 Id., at p. 228.
8 Supra note 1.
9 Rollo, p. 10.
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477
While our extradition law does not provide for the grant of bail
to an extraditee, however, there is no provision prohibiting him or
her from filing a motion for bail, a right to due process under the
Constitution.
The applicable standard of due process, however, should not be
the same as that in criminal proceedings. In the latter, the
standard of due process is premised on the presumption of
innocence of the accused. As Purganan correctly points out, it is
from this major premise that the ancillary presumption in favor of
admitting to bail arises. Bearing in mind the purpose of
extradition proceedings, the premise behind the issuance of the
arrest warrant and the “temporary detention” is the possibility of
flight of the potential extraditee. This is based on the assumption
that such extraditee is a fugitive from justice. Given the foregoing,
the prospective extraditee thus
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10 Id.
11 Supra note 2.
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478
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479
Eventually, on November 28, 2006, the RTC ruled on the
main case of extradition by holding that the extradition
request sufficiently complied with the RP-HK Agreement
and Presidential Decree No. 1069.13
In due course, Muñoz elevated the adverse decision of
November 28, 2006 to the CA upon the following issues,
namely: (1) the enforceability of the RP-HK Agreement,
including the HKSAR’s personality to institute the petition
under its current status as a special administrative region;
(2) the DOJ’s authority to receive the request for
extradition and to file the petition despite Presidential
Decree No. 1069 naming the Secretary of Foreign Affairs
for that purpose; (3) the extraditability of the offense,
considering the nature of the crimes charged and the pieces
of evidence presented in support of the petition; and (4) the
limits of the jurisdiction of the extradition court, i.e.,
whether or not it included passing upon the defenses of the
person to be extradited.14
In its decision promulgated on August 30, 2012,15 the
CA opined that although the People’s Republic of China
resumed
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480
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481
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482
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483
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484
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485
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the person sought if the offence of which that person is accused had been
committed in the territory of the requested Party or to prove that the
person sought is the person convicted by the courts of the requesting
Party.
35 Rollo, p. 10.
36 Art. 315. Swindling (estafa). x x x
2. By means of any of the following false pretenses or fraudulent acts
executed prior to or simultaneously with the commission of the fraud:
(a) By using fictitious name, or falsely pretending to possess power,
influence, qualifications, property, credit, agency, business or imaginary
transactions, or by means of other similar deceits. (Emphasis ours)
486
A perusal of the decision of the RTC and the original
decision of the CA show that said courts determined that
the crime of accepting an advantage as an agent was
analogous to the crime of corrupt practices of public officers
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x x x x
37 Bassiouni, supra note 26 at p. 324.
38 Id., at pp. 325-326.
39 <http://www.legislation.gov.hk/09/eng/pdf.htm.> Last accessed on
August 16, 2016, 3:50 p.m.
40 Section 3. Corrupt practices of public officers.—In addition to acts
or omissions of public officers already penalized by existing
487
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law, the following shall constitute corrupt practices of any public officer
and are hereby declared to be unlawful: (emphasis ours)
x x x x
(b) Directly or indirectly requesting or receiving any gift, present,
share, percentage, or benefit, for himself or for any other person, in
connection with any contract or transaction between the Government and
any other party, wherein the public officer in his official capacity has to
intervene under the law.
x x x x
(h) Directly or indirectly having financial or pecuniary interest in any
business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes
or takes part in his official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the
Constitution or by any law from having any interest.
x x x x
41 Rollo, p. 24.
488
Based on the foregoing, the CA ultimately concluded
that the crime of accepting an advantage as an agent did
not have an equivalent in this jurisdiction considering that
when the unauthorized giving and receiving of benefits
happened in the private sector, the same was not a crime
because there was no law that defined and’ punished such
act as criminal in this jurisdiction.43
We uphold the conclusion and observation by the CA.
A careful reading shows that the foreign law subject-
matter of this controversy deals with bribery in both public
and private sectors. However, it is also quite evident that
the particular provision of the POBO allegedly violated by
Muñoz, i.e., Section 9(1)(a), deals with private sector
bribery — this, despite the interpretation under Section 2
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42 Id.
43 Id., at p. 25.
44 Supra note 39.
489
DISSENTING OPINION
LEONEN, J.:
Respectfully, I dissent.
Under Presidential Decree No. 1069,1 otherwise known
as the Philippine Extradition Law, extradition may be
granted only under a treaty or convention.2 In this case,
the relevant treaty is the Agreement Between the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the
Government of Hong Kong for the Surrender of Accused
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ARTICLE 2
OFFENCES
(1) Surrender shall be granted for an offence coming within any
of the following descriptions of offences insofar as it is according
to the laws of both Parties punishable by imprisonment or other
form of detention for more than one year, or by a more severe
penalty;
....
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491
Thus, a request for extradition shall be granted for
certain offenses, provided that according to the laws of both
the Philippines and Hong Kong, the offense is punishable
by imprisonment or other form of detention for the
duration of more than one (1) year, or by a more severe
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3 Id., Art. 2.
4 Rollo, p. 11, Petition.
5 Id.
6 Id.
492
Statement of Offence
Accepting advantage as an agent, contrary to section 9(1)(a) of
the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, Cap. 201.
Particulars of Offence
Juan Antonio E. MUÑOZ, being an agent, namely an employee
of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, on or about the 12th day of
October 1993, in Hong Kong, without lawful authority or
reasonable excuse, accepted from Ho CHI, also known as CHI Ho,
an advantage, namely a gift, loan, fee, reward or commission
consisting of a deposit of $1,020,000 United States currency into
the Citiplus Account Number 89409787 with Citibank, N.A. held
in the name of the said Juan Antonio E. MUÑOZ, as an
inducement to or reward for or otherwise on account of the said
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The RP-HK Agreement specifically mandates the
consideration of the totality of the acts or omissions
alleged against the person, and further mandates not
referring to the elements of the offense prescribed by the
law of the requesting party. This is to create the greatest
comity between the Philippines and Hong Kong, which, in
turn, would allow for the RP-HK Agreement to be more
effective.
The first charge against respondent alleges the
following: first, that Juan Antonio Muñoz was an employee
of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; second, that he
accepted the amount of US$1,020,000.00 as a gift, loan, fee,
reward, or commission; third, that the gift was an
inducement or reward for doing or having done an act in
relation to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ affairs or
business; and fourth, that the act consisted of concealing
payments relating to gold or silver
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7 Id., at p. 15.
493
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They also appear to be an offense under Section 3(h):
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8 Id., at p. 11.
9 ANTI-GRAFT AND CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT (1960).
494
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(a) doing or forbearing to do, or having done or forborne to
do, any act in relation to his principal’s affairs or business[.]
The intent of both statutes is the same. Corruption is
accepted as a bane to good governance. Its eradication is
not merely desirable; it is a necessity. Corruption
undermines the totality of government. The fair but
decisive prosecution of those responsible for the acts
contributes to its effective deterrence.
Every act of corruption involves both a public officer and
a private individual or entity. The private individual may
have actively participated in conspiracy or as the principal
by inducement. It may likewise be the beneficiary of
decisions made by public officers, and may be done
primarily or solely for motives that do not redound to the
public’s welfare.
The treaty clearly commands both jurisdictions not to
frustrate the ends of justice by unnecessarily truncating
the acts being punished through resort to conjectural
technical possibilities. The letter and intent of both the
treaty and our criminal laws should be respected.
Thus, as the totality of the acts alleged against
respondent is punishable under the laws of both the
Philippines and Hong Kong and is punishable by
imprisonment of more than one (1) year, surrender should
be granted under Article 2 of the RP-HK Agreement.
495
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496
9(1). The offence hits both the asker of the bribe and the
giver of the bribe....
....
8. I believe some countries have enacted statutes based on
our POB but apart from those, I am unaware of any
countries which have statutory provisions which mirror
Section 9(1)(a).
Speaking for petitioner-appellee, on the other hand, Ian
Charles McWalters, Senior Assistant Director of Public
Prosecutions in the Department of Justice of the HKSAR,
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498
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499
vs. Muñoz
....
First question answered in the affirmative
....
19. On an ordinary reading, a public official of a place outside
Hong Kong comes within the phrase “any person employed by or
acting for another” in the definition of “agent” provided by S.2(1)
of the POBO. Also, on an ordinary reading, his public duties in
that place come within the phrase “in relation to his principal’s
affairs” to be found in S.9(2) of the POBO. So on an ordinary
reading of the relevant statutory provisions, the answer to the
first question of law is “Yes.” In other words, where an advantage
is offered in Hong Kong, S.9(2) of the POBO does apply even if the
offeree is a public official of a place outside Hong Kong and the act
or forbearance concerned is in relation to his public duties in that
place outside Hong Kong.
....
22. So I answer the first question in the affirmative. In other
words, I hold where an advantage is offered in Hong Kong, S.9(2)
of the POBO applies even if the offeree is a public official of a
place outside Hong Kong and the act or forbearance concerned is
in relation to his public duties in that place outside Hong Kong.13
Another reason why an extradition treaty requires that
courts take into consideration the totality of circumstances,
and not the elements of the offense, is that courts cannot be
expected to be experts in the other jurisdiction’s
jurisprudence. A misinterpretation of Hong Kong’s laws by
a Philippine court will, indeed, be fraught with danger that
could have been avoided.
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13 Id.
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500
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