This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2003-04-30 |
AUSTRIA-MARTINEZ, J. |
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| In Philippine jurisdiction, Section 20, Article 3 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution expressly provides that no person shall be imprisoned for debt. Debt, as used in the Constitution, refers to civil debt or one not arising from a criminal offense.[34] It means any liability to pay arising out of a contract, express or implied.[35] In the present case, petitioners, as recognized lessees of the estate of the deceased, were ordered by the probate court to pay the rentals to the administratrix. Petitioners did not comply with the order for the principal reason that they were not certain as to the rightful person to whom to pay the rentals because it was a certain Berlito P. Taripe who had originally leased the subject property to them. Clearly, the payment of rentals is covered by the constitutional guarantee against imprisonment. | |||||