CRIMINAL LAW II CASE DIGEST/ PEOPLE V. LOL-LO AND SARAW/ 43 PHIL. 19
CRIMINAL LAW CASE DIGEST
PEOPLE V. LOL-LO AND SARAW,
43 PHIL. 19
TOPIC/DOCTRINE
Piracy is a crime not
against any particular state but against all mankind. It may be punished in the
competent tribunal of any country where the offender may be found or into which
he may be carried. Nor does it matter that the crime was committed within the
jurisdictional 3-mile limit of a foreign state.
FACTS
A boat, in which
there were eleven men, women and children, arrived islands of Buang and Bukid
in the Dutch Indies. There the boat was surrounded by six vintas manned by
twenty-four Moros all armed The Moros first asked for food, but once on the
boat, took for themselves all of the cargo, attacked some of the men, and
brutally violated two of the women by methods too horrible to be described. All
of the persons on the boat, with the exception of the two young women, were
again placed on it and holes were made on it, with the idea that it would
submerge, but after eleven days of hardship and privation they were succored.
Two of the Moro marauders were Lol-lo and Saraw who later returned to their
home in Sulu, Philippines. There they were arrested and were charged in the
Court of First Instance of Sulu with the crime of piracy.
ISSUE
Whether the Court of First
Instance of Sulu is without jurisdiction on the case.
RULING
The court disagreed
with Lol-lo and Saraw. It ruled that the CFI of Sulu has Jurisdiction in the
case.
The court held that piracy
is a crime not against any particular state but against all mankind. It may be
punished in the competent tribunal of any country where the offender may be
found or into which he may be carried. Nor does it matter that the crime was
committed within the jurisdictional 3-mile limit of a foreign state.
Here, the crime of
piracy was accompanied by (1) rape, and (2) the abandonment of persons without
means of saving themselves. The court ruled that Lol-lo who raped one of the
women was sentenced to death, there being the aggravating circumstance of
cruelty, abuse of superior strength, and ignominy, without any mitigating
circumstance.