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Takbobo Principle
Takbobo Principle
Notwithstanding the presence of two mitigating circumstances without any aggravating circumstance, we do not agree with the argument of
appellant and, surprisingly, the recommendation of the Solicitor General to reduce the penalty to reclusion temporal. This would patently run
counter to the rules for the application of invisible penalties under Article 63 of the Revised Penal Code, the petinent portions of which provide:
Art. 63. Rules for the application of indivisible penalties.— xxx xxx xxx In all cases in which the law precribes a penalty composed of two indivisible
penalties, the following rules shall be observed in the application thereof: xxx xxx xxx 3. When the commission of the act is attended by some
mitigating circumstance and there is no aggravating circumstance, the lesser penalty shall be applied. x x x x x x x x x The trial court correctly found
the accused guilty of parricide as charged in the information. Article 246 defines the crime of parricide and imposes thereof the penalty of reclusion
perpetua to death. Applying Article 63, when the penalty is composed of two indivisible penalties, the penalty cannot be lowered by one degree,
no matter how many mitigating circumstances are present. What obviously misled the parties in this case is that they overlooked the fact that the
so-called special ** mitigating circumstance that they rely on, that is, when there are two or more mitigating circumstances and no aggravating
circumstance the court shall impose the penalty next lower to that prescribed by law, is found in paragraph 5 of Article 6 4, which, as its epigraph
shows, provides the "(r)ules for the application of penalties which contain three periods," meaning, divisible penalties. The inapplicability thereof
to the present case has long been settled. In a number of cases, 24 we have held that when there are two or more mitigating circumstances and no
aggravating circumstance but the imposable penalties are indivisible in nature, the court cannot proceed by analogy with the provisions of
paragraph 5 of Article 64 and impose the penalty lower by one degree. Thus, in a parricide case, 25 the trial court imposed the penalty next lower,
which is reclusion temporal, applying paragraph 5 of Article 64 since the crime was attended by two mitigating circumstances without any
aggravating circumstance. In reversing the decision of the lower court, we ruled that the penalty imposed was not correct since the rule applicable
in said case is found in Article 63, and not in Article 64, of the Code
Actual Damages = Damnum Emergens Lucrum Cesans = Compensatory Damages. Although parang non-sense nasa case kasi ni Bersamin so better
safe than sorry.
There are four essential elements a plaintiff must prove in a malpractice action based upon the doctrine of informed consent: (1) the physician had
a duty to disclose material risks; (2) he failed to disclose or inadequately disclosed those risks; (3) as a direct and proximate result of the failure to
disclose, the patient consented to treatment she otherwise would not have consented to; and (4) plaintiff was injured by the proposed treatment.