I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people.
Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody.
This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice.
Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!
This is a rule that is as misunderstood as it is misused. The Best Evidence Rule is the lowest in the priority of evidence. Contrary to what its abusers say, it can only be used as a last resort and applies only to documents and their contents. Also, the rule WON'T apply to xerox copies (there's a case on that, CIR vs. Hantex 454 SCRA 301) if the original can't be found. Basically the Best Evidence Rule is about using a document to prove another document. It can only be used to prevent fraud as well as mistakes in interpretation.
The Best Evidence Rule can only be used when an original document has either been lost or destroyed without the fault of the person offering it, is in the hands of the other party in the case, consists of a lot of materials that can be examined only after a long (long!) period of time, or if it is a public document in the hands of a government person/office.
For the BIR, the only valid way to use the rule is to make inquiries with other people and businesses that the taxpayer did business with. The only times it can do this is if the taxpayer submits a fake tax return or if the return isn't submitted within the time prescribed by law.
Remember this: even if you're on the correct side in a trial, you could lose if you don't object when the other side uses the Best Evidence Rule. If you don't object if the other side shows a xerox copy, you could lose a case.
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