US v. Toribio

UNITED STATES v. TORIBIO, (A)
15 Phil. 85 (1910)

FACTS:

• The appellant slaughtered or caused to be slaughtered for human consumption, the carabao, without a permit from the municipal treasure of the municipality wherein it was slaughtered, in violation of the provisions of Act No. 1147, an Act regulating the registration, branding, and slaughter of large cattle.
• It appears that in the town of Carmen, in the Province of Bohol, wherein the animal was slaughtered there is no municipal slaughterhouse, and counsel for appellant contends that under such circumstances the provisions of Act No. 1147 do not prohibit nor penalize the slaughter of large cattle without a permit of the municipal treasure.
• It is contended that the proper construction of the language of these provisions limits the prohibition contained in section 30 and the penalty imposed in section 33 to cases (1) of slaughter of large cattle for human consumption in a municipal slaughter without a permit duly secured from the municipal treasurer, and (2) cases of killing of large cattle for food in a municipal slaughterhouse without a permit duly secured from the municipal treasurer; and it is urged that the municipality of Carmen not being provided with a municipal slaughterhouse, neither the prohibition nor the penalty is applicable to cases of slaughter of large cattle without a permit in that municipality.

ISSUE:

• Whether or not the language of these provisions limits the prohibition contained in section 30 and the penalty imposed in section 33 to cases not being provided with a municipal slaughterhouse.

HELD:

• No, The Act primarily seeks to protect the "large cattle" of the Philippine Islands against theft and to make easy the recovery and return of such cattle to their proper owners when lost, strayed, or stolen. If, however, the construction be placed on these sections which is contended for by the appellant, it will readily be seen that all these carefully worked out provisions for the registry and record of the brands and marks of identification of all large cattle in the Islands would prove in large part abortion, since thieves and persons unlawfully in possession of such cattle, and naturally would, evade the provisions of the law by slaughtering them outside of municipal slaughterhouses
• Where the language of a statute is fairly susceptible of two or more constructions, that construction should be adopted which will most tend to give effect to the manifest intent of the lawmaker and promote the object for which the statute was enacted, and a construction should be rejected which would tend to render abortive other provisions of the statute and to defeat the object which the legislator sought to attain by its enactment. We are of opinion, therefore, that sections 30 and 33 of the Act prohibit and penalize the slaughtering or causing to be slaughtered for human consumption of large cattle at any place without the permit provided for in section 30.