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Florentino v. PNB G.R. No. L-8782. April 28, 1956

Petitioner Florentino had a loan of 6,800 pesos plus interest from Philippine National Bank (PNB) that was due on January 2, 1954. Florentino also had a backpay certificate from the government for 22,896.33 pesos. In December 1953, Florentino offered to pay his loan with PNB using his backpay certificate, but PNB refused. The Supreme Court ruled that PNB must accept Florentino's backpay certificate to pay his debt based on their interpretation of Section 2 of Republic Act 304, which allows backpay certificates to settle obligations with government branches and corporations. The qualifying clause in the law refers only to settling obligations with citizens and corporations, not government entities like

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110 views1 page

Florentino v. PNB G.R. No. L-8782. April 28, 1956

Petitioner Florentino had a loan of 6,800 pesos plus interest from Philippine National Bank (PNB) that was due on January 2, 1954. Florentino also had a backpay certificate from the government for 22,896.33 pesos. In December 1953, Florentino offered to pay his loan with PNB using his backpay certificate, but PNB refused. The Supreme Court ruled that PNB must accept Florentino's backpay certificate to pay his debt based on their interpretation of Section 2 of Republic Act 304, which allows backpay certificates to settle obligations with government branches and corporations. The qualifying clause in the law refers only to settling obligations with citizens and corporations, not government entities like

Uploaded by

Zepht Badilla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Florentino v. PNB G.R. No. L-8782.

April 28, 1956

Facts: Florentino et al are indebted to the respondent bank in the amount of P6,800 plus interest,
incurred on January 2, 1953, which is due on January 2, 1954. The said loan is secured by a mortgage
of real properties. Petitioner Florentino is a holder of Backpay Acknowledgment No. 1721 dated
October 6, 1954, in the amount of P22,896.33 by virtue of Republic Act No. 897 approved on June
20, 1953. On December 27, 1953, petitioners offered to pay their loan with the respondent bank
with their backpay certificate but PNB refused to accept petitioner’s offer to pay the said
indebtedness with the latter’s backpay certificate.

Issue: Whether or not, Philippine National Bank be compelled to accept the backpay certificate of
petitioner Marcelino B. Florentino issued to him by the Republic of the Philippines, to pay an
indebtedness to the Philippine National Bank

Held: Appellee is ordered to accept the backpay certificate.

Ratio: Section 2 of RA 304 reads as “…obligations subsisting at the time of the approval of this
amendatory Act for which the applicant may directly be liable to the Government or to any of its
branches or instrumentalities, or the corporations owned or control by the Government, or to any
citizen of the Philippines, or to any association or corporation organized under the laws of the
Philippines, who may be willing to accept the same for such settlement.” SC held that the qualifying
clause refers only to the last antecedent; that is, “any citizen of the Philippines or any association or
corporation organized under the laws of the Philippines.” It should be noted that there is a comma
before the words “or to any citizen, etc.,” which separates said phrase from the preceding ones.
Hence, “who may be willing to accept the same for settlement” applies only to the last antecedent.

StatCon maxim: An argument based upon punctuation alone is not persuasive, and the courts will
not hesitate to change the punctuation when necessary, to give the statute the effect intended by
the legislature, disregarding superfluous or incorrect punctuation marks and inserting others where
necessary.

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