CRIMINAL LAW Law[4] is a system of rules and guidelines, usually enforced through a set of institutions.

[5] It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets.Property law defines rights and obligations related to the transfer and title of personal and real property. Trust law applies to assets held for investment and financial security, while tort law allows claims for compensation if a person's rights or property are harmed. If the harm is criminalised in a statute, criminal law offers means by which the state can prosecute the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for the creation of law, the protection of human rights and the election of political representatives. Administrative law is used to review the decisions of government agencies, while international law governs affairs between sovereign states in activities ranging from trade to environmental regulation or military action. *A judiciary is a number of judges mediating disputes to determine outcome. Most countries have systems of appeal courts, answering up to a supreme legal authority. It is theoretically bound by the constitution, much as legislative bodies are. In most countries judges may only interpret the constitution and all other laws. But in common law countries, where matters are not constitutional, the judiciary may also create law under the doctrine of precedent. *Legislature -in the 'lower house' politicians are elected to represent smaller constituencies. The 'upper house' is usually elected to represent states in a federal system or different voting configuration in a unitary system. One criticism of bicameral systems with two elected chambers is that the upper and lower houses may simply mirror one another. The traditional justification of bicameralism is that an upper chamber acts as a house of review. This can minimise arbitrariness and injustice in governmental action.To pass legislation, a majority of the members of a legislature must vote for a bill (proposed law) in each house. Normally there will be several readings and amendments proposed by the different political factions. If a country has an entrenched constitution, a special majority for changes to the constitution may be required, making changes to the law more difficult. A government usually leads the process, which can be formed from Members of Parliament. However, in a presidential system, the government is usually formed by an executive and his or her appointed cabinet officials. *Executive - the executive in a legal system serves as a government's centre of political authority. The executive is chosen by the Prime Minister or Chancellor, whose office holds power under the confidence of the legislature. Because popular elections appoint political parties to govern, the leader of a party can change in between elections. The head of state is apart from the executive, and symbolically enacts laws and acts as representative of the nation. In presidential systems, the executive acts as both head of state and head of government, and has power to appoint an unelected cabinet. Under a presidential system, the executive branch is separate from the legislature to which it is not accountable. Although the role of the executive varies from country to country, usually it will propose the majority of legislation, and propose government agenda. In presidential systems, the executive often has the power to veto legislation. Most executives in both systems are responsible for foreign relations, the military and police, and the bureaucracy. Ministers or other officials head a country's public offices, such as a foreign ministry or interior ministry. The election of a different executive is therefore capable of revolutionising an entire country's approach to government. Criminal law, or penal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is prohibited by the state because it is held to threaten, harm or otherwise endanger the safety and welfare of the public, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on those who breach these laws. Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority (via mechanisms such as legal systems) can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently, in different localities (state, local, international), at different time stages of the so-called "crime" (planning, disclosure, supposedly intended, supposedly prepared, incompleted, completed or futuristically proclaimed after the "crime". When informal relationships and sanctions prove insufficient to establish and maintain a desired social order, a government or a state may

impose more formalized or stricter systems of social control. With institutional and legal
machinery at their disposal, agents of the State can compel populations to conform to codes, and can opt to punish or attempt to reform those who do not conform. *Felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors. Many common law countries have now abolished the felony/misdemeanor distinction and replaced it with other distinctions such as between indictable offences and summary offences. A felony is generally considered to be a crime of "high seriousness", while a misdemeanor is not. *Offence - a violation of the penal law. *A common-law crime is one punishable under common law, as distinguished from crimes specified by statute. In many U.S. jurisdictions, including some in which comprehensive criminal statutes have been enacted, the common law in relation to crimes and criminal procedure has been recognized by the courts as in force, except insofar as it has been abrogated or repealed, expressly or impliedly, by statute. Thus the state may prosecute crimes that were indictable at common law even though they may not be denominated as such or be provided for by statute. In many other jurisdictions the courts have held the common law as to crimes as being abolished, and no act is punishable as a crime unless it is made so by statute, or unless the act is made punishable as a crime by the constitution. The Congress of the Philippines consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The senate is made up of 24 Senators who are elected at large by the qualified voters of the Philippines for a term of six years. A senator must be a natural-born Filipino citizen, able to read and write, a registered voter, is at least 35 years old and a resident of the Philippines for at least two years immediately preceding the day of election. The house of representatives is compose of not more than 250 members who are elected from legislative districts apportioned among the different provinces, cities and the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance with the number of their respective inhabitants for a term of three years. A representative must be a naturalborn citizen, is at least 25 years old, able to read and write, a registered voter in the district that elected him, and a resident thereof for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding the day of election. The first election of the member s of Congress was on May 11, 1987. General legislative power is concerned with the making of any law of the land that is not prohibited by the
Constitution. These laws may relate to such matters as suffrage, election, the national languages, land reform, succession to the Presidency, citizenship, taxation, organization of courts, apportionment of electoral districts, etc. There is no limit to the number of laws the Congress can make.

Specific legislative power refers to power to make treaties with other countries declare war, impeach the
President, members of the Supreme court and the Constitutional Commissions and the Auditor-General, enact the Appropriation Act based on the budget, amend the constitution.

Inherent power is its powers to impose taxes impose penalties for specific crimes, authorize upon payment
of just compensation, the expropriation of private lands.

Implied power of Congress refers to its power to conduct inquires on the social and economic conditions
of the country in aid of legislation.

The powers of Congress and their limitations:

1. A member shall not hold any other office or employment in the government. 2. No member shall appear as counsel before any court in any civil case wherein the government is the adverse party. 3. Congress cannot pass laws that will deprive a person of his life, property and in the pursuit of happiness without due process of law. 4. It can not pass ex-post facto laws. An ex-post facto law is one that imposes punishment on a crime that was not punishable at the time it was committed.

5. When making inquiries or investigations, the individual rights of the persons appearing in such inquiries shall be respected. 6. Congress can declare war only if approved by 2/3 of all members. 7. Congress cannot increase the appropriations in the budget proposed by the President.

The Privileges of Congress:

Members of Congress are granted by the constitution some privileges in order that the body can carry on its work without interruption. Among these are: 1. Congress may determine the rules of its proceedings; punish its members for disorderly behavior. 2. A member is immune from arrest when Congress is in session provided that the offense is punishable by not more that six years imprisonment. 3. A member shall not be questioned or held liable in any other place for any speech or debate in Congress.

*Characteristics of Criminal Law: Politicality is regarded almost universally as a necessary element in criminal law. The rules of the trade
union, the church, or the family are not regarded as criminal law, nor are violations of these rules regarded as crimes. Only violations of rules made by the state are crimes. This distinction between the state and other groups is not only arbitrary but also is difficult to maintain when attention is turned to societies where patriarchal power, private self-help, popular justice, and other forerunners of legislative justice are found This may be illustrated by the gypsies, who have no territorial organization and no w r i t t e n law, but who do have customs, taboos, a semijudicial council which makes definite decisions regarding the propriety of behavior of members of the group and often imposes penalties. These councils have no political authority in the territory in which they happen to be operating, but they perform the same function within the gypsy group that courts perform in the political order. Similarly, early Chinese immigrants in Chicago established an unofficial court which had no political authority, but which, in practice, exercised the functions of an authorized court in controversies among the Chinese people. The American Cosa Nostra has a legislative and judicial system for administering the functional equivalent of the criminal law among its members. Thus, the element of politicality is arbitrary and is not sharply defined. The earlier systems of law, together with the present relation between public opinion and legal precepts, raise the question, When should the rules of a group be regarded as the law and violations of these rules as crimes?

Specificity is included as an element in the definition of criminal law because of the contrast in this respect between criminal law and civil law. The civil law may be general. An old German civil code, for instance, provided that whoever intentionally injured another in a manner contrary to the common standards of right conduct was bound to indemnify him. The criminal law, on the other hand, generally gives a strict definition of a specific act, and when there is doubt as to whether a definition describes the behavior of a defendant, the judge is obligated to decide in favor of the defendant. In one famous case, for example, the behavior of a person who had taken an airplane was held to be exempt from the consequences of violating a statute regarding the taking of self-propelled vehicles, on the ground that at the time the law was enacted vehicles did not include airplanes.3 Some laws, to be sure, are quite general, as the laws in regard to nuisances, conspiracy, vagrancy, disorderly conduct, use of the mails to defraud, and official misfeasance. The criminal law, however, contains no general provision that any act which, when done with culpable intent, injures the public can be prosecuted as a punishable offense.4 Consequently it frequently happens that one act is prohibited by law while another act, which is very similar in nature and effects, is not prohibited and is not illegal.5. Uniformity or regularity is included in the conventional definition of criminal law because law attempts to provide evenhanded justice without respect to persons. This means that no exceptions are made to criminal liability because of a persons social status; an act described as a crime is crime, no matter who perpetrates it. Also, uniformity means that the law-enforcement process shall be administered without regard for the status of the persons who have committed crimes or are accused of committing crimes. This ideal is rarely followed in practice, principally because it results in injustices. Rigid rule is softened by police discretion and judicial discretion. Rigid rule treats all persons in the class to which the law refers exactly alike, while police and judicial discretion take cognizance of the circumstances of the offense and the characteristics of the offender, a process which has come to be called individualization.6 Much of what happens to persons accused of delinquency or crime is determined in a process of negotiation. Equity, also, developed as a method of doing justice in particular situations where iron regularity would not do justice. As precedents in equity have accumulated, the decisions tend to become uniform, and thus similar to law. In line with the present tendency toward judicial discretion, authority has been conferred by

legislative assemblies upon many administrative bodies to make regulations applicable to particular situations such as length of prison term and parole. Penal sanction, as one of the elements in the orthodox definition of law, refers to the notion that violators will be punished or, at least, threatened with punishment by the state. Punishment under the law differs from that imposed by a mob in that it is to be applied dispassionately by representatives of the state in such a manner that it may win the approval of the cool judgment of impartial observers. A law which does not provide a penalty that will cause suffering is regarded as quite impotent and, in fact, no criminal law at all. However, the punishment provided may be very slight; in the courts of honor a verdict was reached, a party was declared guilty, and the disgrace of the declaration of guilt was the only punishment. In view of the difficulty of identifying the criminal law of nonliterate societies, where the institution of the state is not obvious, the suggestion has been made that the penal sanction is the only essential element in the definition of criminal law, and that wherever proscriptions are enforced by a penal sanction, there criminal law exists. This is in contrast to the tort law, where the court orders the defendant to reimburse the plaintiff, but does not punish him for damaging the plaintiff. ARTICLE IV 1987 Phil. Constitution Citizenship SECTION 1. The following are citizens of the Philippines : (1) Those who are citizens of the Philippines at the time of the adoption of this Constitution; (2) Those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines ; (3) Those born before January 17, 1973, of Filipino mothers, who elect Philippine citizenship upon reaching the age of majority; and (4) Those who are naturalized in accordance with law. SECTION 2. Natural-born citizens are those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship. Those who elect Philippine citizenship in accordance with paragraph (3), Section 1 hereof shall be deemed natural-born citizens. SECTION 3. Philippine citizenship may be lost or reacquired in the manner provided by law. SECTION 4. Citizens of the Philippines who marry aliens shall retain their citizenship, unless by their act or omission they are deemed, under the law, to have renounced it. SECTION 5. Dual allegiance of citizens is inimical to the national interest and shall be dealt with by law. ARTICLE 5 GENERAL RULES OF CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION Section 5.00 Penal law not strictly construed. 5.05 Application of chapter to offenses committed before and after enactment. 5.10 Other limitations on applicability of this chapter. S 5.00 Penal law not strictly construed. The general rule that a penal statute is to be strictly construed does not apply to this chapter, but the provisions herein must be construed according to the fair import of their terms to promote justice and effect the objects of the law. S 5.05 Application of chapter to offenses committed before and after enactment. 1. The provisions of this chapter shall govern the construction of and punishment for any offense defined in this chapter and committed after the effective date hereof, as well as the construction and application of any defense to a prosecution for such an offense.

2. Unless otherwise expressly provided, or unless the context otherwise requires, the provisions of this chapter shall govern the construction of and punishment for any offense defined outside of this chapter and committed after the effective date thereof, as well as the construction and application of any defense to a prosecution for such an offense. 3. The provisions of this chapter do not apply to or govern the construction of and punishment for any offense committed prior to the effective date of this chapter, or the construction and application of any defense to a prosecution for such an offense. Such an offense must be construed and punished according to the provisions of law existing at the time of the commission thereof in the same manner as if this chapter had not been enacted. S 5.10 Other limitations on applicability of this chapter. 1. Except as otherwise provided, the procedure governing the accusation, prosecution, conviction and punishment of offenders and offenses is not regulated by this chapter but by the criminal procedure law. 2. This chapter does not affect any power conferred by law upon any court-martial or other military authority or officer to prosecute and punish conduct and offenders violating military codes or laws. 3. This chapter does not bar, suspend, or otherwise affect any right or liability to damages, penalty, forfeiture or other remedy authorized by law to be recovered or enforced in a civil action, regardless of whether the conduct involved in such civil action constitutes an offense defined in this chapter. 4. Sections 120.45, 120.50, 120.55, 120.60 and 240.25, subdivisions two and three of section 240.26, and sections 240.70 and 240.71 of this chapter (a) do not apply to conduct which is otherwise lawful under the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act as amended, the National Railway Labor Act as amended, or the Federal Employment Labor Management Act as amended, and (b) do not bar any conduct, including, but not limited to, peaceful picketing or other peaceful demonstration, protected from legal prohibition by the federal and state constitutions.