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!
Now we go into certain peculiarities involving illegal possession of firearms. Though short, this article is still worth considering.
1.) Mere possession of an unlicensed firearm: simple illegal possession of firearms.
2.) Commission of homicide or murder (including other forms of killing, like parricide): the unlicensed firearm is considered and aggravating circumstance. The wording goes "If homicide or murder is committed with the use of an unlicensed firearm, such use of an unlicensed firearm shall be considered as an aggravating circumstance." unless the killing and illegal possession were filed separately. If that happens, the accused can be convicted for both crimes.
3.) Rebellion, sedition, or attempted coup: the use of the unlicensed firearm is absorbed as an element. It won't affect the penalty for rebellion, sedition, etc.
4.) Any crimes committed (like alarm and scandal) -only for that crime: illegal possession is absolved. The wording of the law is "Provided, That no other crime was committed." (People vs. Ladjaalam, GR 136149-51, September 19, 2000.) The wording is very specific, just like in #2. Therefore illegal possession will be considered neither a crime nor an aggravating circumstance.
2 comments:
Under para 4, what if a person committed slight physical injury, there and then was arrested and an unlicensed firearms was tucked on his waist and seized from him. Can that person be held liable for illegal possession of firearms? Considering that another crime was committed.
If that firearm was used to commit the crime, the possession is absolved. If, however, the firearm wasn't used and was merely recovered from the perpetrator when he was arrested, then there are already 2 crimes: slight physical injuries and illegal possession of firearms.
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