Case Digest: Ramirez vs. CA, G.R. No. 93833, September 28, 1995

                       Motion to Quash | Criminal Procedure


Facts:

Socorro D. Ramirez filed a civil case against Ester S. Garcia, alleging that the private respondent vexed, insulted and humiliated her in a confrontation in the latter's office.

Ramirez presented a verbatim transcript of the event, based on a tape recording she made.
She sought damages, attorney's fees, and other expenses in the civil case in the amount of P610,000.00.

As a result, Garcia filed a criminal case against Ramirez for violating Republic Act No. 4200, which prohibits wiretapping and related violations of private communication.

Ramirez filed a motion to quash the information, arguing that the facts charged did not constitute an offense under the law.

The trial court granted the motion, but the Court of Appeals overturned the decision, stating that the allegations were sufficient to constitute an offense under the law.

Ramirez argues that R.A. 4200 does not apply to the recording of a private conversation by one of the involved parties. She claims that the law only applies to unauthorized recordings by third parties and that the substance of the conversation must be alleged in the information for it to be a violation of the law.

Ramirez also argues that R.A. 4200 penalizes the recording of a "private communication," not a "private conversation," and thus her act of secretly recording the conversation with Garcia was not illegal.

Issue:

WoN the Motion to Quash the Information on the ground that the facts charged do not constitute an offense should be granted. (NO)



Held: DENIED.
First, legislative intent is determined principally from the language of a statute. 

Section 1 of R.A. 4200 entitled, " An Act to Prohibit and Penalized Wire Tapping and Other Related Violations of Private Communication and Other Purposes," provides:

Sec. 1. It shall be unlawfull for any person, not being authorized by all the parties to any private communication or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable, or by using any other device or arrangement, to secretly overhear, intercept, or record such communication or spoken word by using a device commonly known as a dictaphone or dictagraph or detectaphone or walkie-talkie or tape recorder, or however otherwise described.

The aforestated provision clearly and unequivocally makes it illegal for any person, not authorized by all the parties to any private communication to secretly record such communication by means of a tape recorder. The law makes no distinction as to whether the party sought to be penalized by the statute ought to be a party other than or different from those involved in the private communication. The statute's intent to penalize all persons unauthorized to make such recording is underscored by the use of the qualifier "any". Consequently, as respondent Court of Appeals correctly concluded, "even a (person) privy to a communication who records his private conversation with another without the knowledge of the latter (will) qualify as a violator" 13 under this provision of R.A. 420

The unambiguity of the express words of the provision, taken together with the above-quoted deliberations from the Congressional Record, therefore plainly supports the view held by the respondent court that the provision seeks to penalize even those privy to the private communications. Where the law makes no distinctions, one does not distinguish.

Second, the nature of the conversations is immaterial to a violation of the statute. Finally, petitioner's contention that the phrase "private communication" in Section 1 of R.A. 4200 does not include "private conversations" narrows the ordinary meaning of the word "communication" to a point of absurdity. 

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