Now that you know about the offenses of public officers under RA 3019, here are the provisions of the same law that target other offenders. The penalties that cover these offenses are the same as those of public officers.
Persons with family ties or close
personal relations with any public official are prohibited from taking
advantage of such ties or relationships by directly or indirectly asking
for or receiving any gift or material/pecuniary advantage from people
or entities who have business, transactions or contracts with the
government wherein the official concerned is required to intervene. "Family ties" include the spouse as well as relatives up to the 3rd
civil degree. "Close personal relation" includes close personal
friendship and professional employment that gives rise to intimacy and
assures free access to the official in question. This includes
membership in social and fraternal organizations.
Relatives within the 3rd civil degree
of the President, Vice-President, Senate President and House Speaker are
not allowed to intervene directly or indirectly in any business,
contract or transaction with the government. The exceptions are:
1.) If the transaction, etc. in question was already going on when the official in question assumed office
2.) If the official in question was already dealing with the government on the same line of business before he assumed office
3.) If the approval of application
filed by the officer in question isn't discretionary but depends on
requirements set down by law, rules and regulations
4.) If the act is lawfully performed in an official capacity or in the exercise of a profession (be careful of this part)
A member of Congress (meaning both the
Senate and House of Representatives,) during his term in office, is not
allowed to acquire or receive any personal pecuniary interest in any
specific business enterprise that will indirectly or directly benefit
from any law or resolution authored by him previously approved or
adopted by Congress during said member's term. This extends to other
public officers who recommended the initiation of such law or resolution
in Congress and who later acquire or receive such interest during their incumbency. Furthermore all officers,
whether members of Congress or not, so long as they have an interest in
the business enterprise in question, are prohibited from retaining the
interest in question if it continues for 30 days after its approval.
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!
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