- Alburo Law Offices' Newsletter
- Archive
- Page 3
Archive
The Supreme Court decides: The Supreme Court underscored that a writ of mandamus may not compel the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to exercise its discretion in a certain way, such as granting or denying a request to open and recount ballot boxes.
The Supreme Court underscored that a writ of mandamus may not compel the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to exercise its discretion in a certain way, such as granting or denying a request to open and recount ballot boxes.

Obstruction of Apprehension and Prosecution of Criminal Offenders (Presidential Decree No. 1829)
Article 20 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) enumerates the accessories who are exempt from criminal liability, particularly those who are such with respect to their spouses, ascendants, descendants, legitimate, natural, and adopted brothers and sisters, or relatives by affinity within the same degrees, with the single exception of accessories falling within the provisions of paragraph 1 of the next preceding article.However the aforesaid accessories who are exempted under Article 20 can still be held liable as principals for obstruction of justice under Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1829 or “Penalizing Obstruction Of Apprehension And Prosecution Of Criminal Offenders”.Section 1 of the PD No. 1829 provides for the acts that may be considered as obstruction of justice.

Coverage of the Rules on Expedited Procedures in the First Level Courts
The Supreme Court promulgated the Rules on Expedited Procedures in the First Level Courts to address the need to recalibrate, reconcile, and harmonize the coverage of the 1991 Revised Rule on Summary Procedure and 2016 Revised Rules on Small Claims Cases to efficiently attain their objectives. The new Rules enumerate the cases covered by these procedures.

What are the differences between Guaranty and Surety?
A contract of suretyship is an agreement whereby a party, called the surety, guarantees the performance by another party of an obligation or undertaking in favor of another party. Under a normal contract of guarantee, the guarantor binds himself to the creditor to fulfill the obligation of the principal debtor in case the latter should fail to do so. However, the guarantor cannot be compelled to pay the creditor unless the latter has exhausted all the property of the debtor and resorted to all the legal remedies against the debtor.
