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0, 2003, the Supreme Court restated the four elements of perjury, namely: (1)

that the accused made a statement under oath upon a material matter; (2) that

the statement was made before a competent officer, authorized to receive and

administer oath; (3) that the accused made a willful and deliberate assertion of a

falsehood in the statement; and (4) that the sworn statement containing the

falsity is required by law or made for legal purpose.1

Perjury is a felony by dolo because it is required that the statement made by the

accused is a willful and deliberate assertion of a falsehood. The Supreme Court,

in Monfort III, et al. v. Salvatierra, et al., G.R. No. 168301, March 5, 2007, has

explained the law on perjury in this wise:

Perjury being a felony by dolo, there must be


malice on the part of the accused. Willfully means
intentionally, with evil intent and legal malice, with
consciousness that the alleged perjurious statement is
false with the intent that it should be received as a
statement of what was true in fact. It is equivalent to
`knowingly. Deliberately implies meditated as
distinguished from `inadvertent acts. It must appear that
the accused knows his statement to be false or is
consciously ignorant of its truth.

1 See also: Reyes, Luis B., The Revised Penal Code, Book Two, c. 1998, at p. 272.
Assuming that BCs affidavit-complaint2 contains false statement, the

prosecution has failed to show that he was aware of the falsity of his statement.

The fact is, at the time BC made his Affidavit-Complaint, he thought his statement

was true. He was, to borrow the words of the Supreme Court, consciously

ignorant of its truth. In making the statement, he did not act with evil intent. On

the contrary, he acted in good faith, in a legitimate act to seek relief for the wrong

done to him.

In fact, RC and JC who were present during the incident at the La Trinidad

police station were of the same perception. They, too, believed in good faith that

the one who arrived at the police station was Police Officer XY because that was

how that person announced himself to be. The way that person acted at that

time led everyone to believe that he was Police Officer XY.

2 Exh. B [also Exh. 6].

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