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People vs. Gatward 267 SCRA 785

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee vs. NIGEL RICHARD GATWARD, and U AUNG WIN, accused. NIGEL RICHARD GATWARD, accused-appellant.

G.R. Nos. 119772-73 | 1997-02-07

D E C I S I O N

REGALADO, J.:

The accession into our statute books on December 31, 1993 of Republic Act No. 7659, 1 which authorized the re-imposition of the death penalty and amended certain provisions of the Revised Penal Code and the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972, raised the level of expectations in the drive against criminality. As was to be expected, however, some innovations therein needed the intervention of this Court for a judicial interpretation of amendments introduced to the dangerous drugs law. 2

The same spin-off of novelty, this time by the new provision fixing the duration of reclusion perpetua which theretofore had not been...