Rule 130

Testimonial Knowledge
Section
36:
Testimony
generally
confined
to
personal
knowledge,
hearsay excluded: A witness may
testify only to those fact which is of
his personal knowledge, that is, which
is derived from his own perception,
unless otherwise provided by law.
Elements of Hearsay
1. Out of court statement
2. The statement made out of court is
repeated and offered by the witness
to prove the truth of the matters
asserted by the statement
Reason for Excluding the Hearsay: Not
subject to the test of truth because there is
no opportunity for cross-examination. Thus,
a violation of the constitutional right to
confrontation.
Two concepts of Hearsay Evidence:
1. Any witness, whether oral or
documentary, is hearsay if its
probative value is not based on the
personal knowledge of the witness
but on the knowledge of some other
person not on the witness stand.
2. Hearsay includes all the assertions
which have not been subject to
opportunity for cross examination by
adversary at the trial in which they
are being offered against him.
Exceptions to the Hearsay Rule: (DDAFCREEC-LT) (Section 37-47)
1.
2.
3.
4.

Dying Declaration
Declaration against interest
Act or declaration about pedigree
Family
reputation
or
tradition
regarding pedigree
5. Common reputation
6. Res Gestae
7. Entries in the course of business
8. Entries in the official records
9. Commercial list
10.Learned treaties
11.Testimony or deposition at a former
proceeding

Other exceptions:
1. Section 28 of the Rules on
examination of a Child Witness
2. Rule 8 of the Rules on Electronic
Evidence: Business Records as
Exception to the Hearsay Rule
Independently
Relevant
Statements
(Apparent hearsay): An out of court
declaration which while having certain
characteristics of hearsay evidence, is
not actually hearsay but is original
evidence.
2 Classes of independently relevant
statements
1. Statements which are the very fact
in issue (e.g. slander)
2. Circumstantial evidence of the fact in
issue
Section
37.
Dying
declaration:
The
declaration of a dying person, made under
the consciousness of an impending death,
may be received in any case wherein his
death is the subject of inquiry, as evidence
of
such
cause
and
surrounding
circumstance of such death.
Dying declaration the ante mortem
statements made by a person after the
mortal wound has been inflicted under the
belief that death is certain, stating the facts
concerning the cause of the circumstances
surrounding the attack.
Requisites: DUORCD
1. The declaration is made by a dying
person
2. The declaration was made by said
dying
person
under
the
consciousness of an impending
death
3. The declaration is offered in a case
wherein his death is the subject of
the inquiry
4. The declaration refers to the cause
and surrounding circumstances of
such death
5. The declarant is competent as a
witness had he survived
6. The declarant should have died.
Reason:

1. Necessity the declarants death

renders impossible his taking the
witness stand
2. Trustworthiness a man at the point
of death not prone to invent a story.
Doctrine
of
completeness:
A
dying
declaration to be admissible must be
complete in itself. Must be a full expression
of all that he intended to say as conveying
his meaning in respect of such fact.
Section
38:
Declaration
against
interest. The declaration made by a
person deceased, or unable to testify,
against the interest of the declarant, if
the fact asserted in the declaration
was at the time it was made so far
contrary to declarants own interest,
that a reasonable person in his
position
would
not
made
the
declaration unless he believes it to be
true, may be received in evidence
against himself or his successor in
interest and against third person.
Requisites:
1. Declarant is dead or unable to testify
2. Declaration is against the interest of
the declarant
3. That at the time he made said
declaration the declarant was aware
that the same was contray to his
interest
4. The declarant had no motive to
falsify and believed such declaration
to be true.
Section 39. Act or declaration about
Pedigree. The act or declaration by a
person deceased or unable to testify, in
respect to the pedigree of another person
related to him by birth or marriage, may be
received in evidence where it occurred
before the controversy and the relationship
between the two person is shown by
evidence
other
than
such
act
or
declaration. The word pedigree includes
relationship,
family
genealogy,
birth,
marriage, death, the dates when and
places where the facts occurred and the
names of the relatives. It embraces also
family history intimately connected with
pedigree.

Pedigree lineage, descent, and succession

of families, line of ancestors, from which a
person descends:genealogy. An account or
register of a line of ancestors.
Requisites:
1. Declarant be related to the person
whose pedigree is the subject of
inquiry
2. Relationship may be shown by
evidence other than the declaration
3. Declaration was made before death
or inability of the declarant to testify
4. The declarant is dead or outside the
jurisdiction of the Philippines or
unable to testify.
Ex. Notarial agreement to support a
child whose filiation is admitted by the
putative
father
was
considered
acceptable evidence.
Section 40. Family reputation or
tradition regarding pedigree. The
reputation or tradition existing in a
family previous to the controversy, in
respect to the pedigree of any one of its
members, may be received in evidence,
if the witness testifying thereon be also
a member of the family, either by
consanguinity or affinity. Entris in family
bibles or other family books or charts,
engravings on rings, family portraits and
the like, may be received as evidence of
pedigree.
Family reputation what is commonly
said and understood to be true among
immediate
relatives
and
family
connections of the party whom the
inquiry relates.
Tradition

knowledge,
belief
or
practices, transmitted orally from father
to son, or from ancestors to posterity
(all future generations).
Section 41. Common Reputation.
Common reputation existing previous
controversy, respecting facts of public
or general intrest more than 30 years
old, or respecting marriage or moral
character, may be given in evidence.
Monuments and inscription in public

places may be received as evidence of

common reputation.
Common reputation
undivided
reputationreputation

general or
universal

How to prove common reputation?

1. By testimonial evidence of a
competent witness
2. Monuments and inscriptions in public
places
3. Documents containing statements or
reputation.
Requisites:
1. The matter to which reputation
referred to is a public or general
interest more than 30 yrs old
2. Reputation is ancient
3. Reputation is one formed in the
community interested
4. Existed before any controversy has
arisen in the matter sought to be
proved thereby
5. Common reputation is with respect
to the marriage or moral character
Section 42. Part of res gestae.
Statement made by a person while a
startling occurrence is taking place or
immediately prior or subsequent thereto
in respect to the circumstances thereof,
may be given in evidence as part of res
gestae.
So
also,
statements
accompanying an equivocal act material
to the issue, and giving it a legal
significance, may be received as part of
the res gestae.
Res gestae- statements made by the
participants or the victims of, or the
spectators to, a crime immediately
before, during or after its commission.
Distinction between
dying declaration

res

gestae

and

1. A dying declaration can only be

made by the victim while a
statement as part of res gestae may
be that of the killer himself after or
during the killing.

2. Dying declaration is made only after

the homicidal attack has been
committed while, in res gestae the
statement may precede, accompany
or be made after the homicidal act
was committed.
3. Dying declaration is being based
upon the awareness of an impending
death while res gestai has its basis
on spontaneity of the statement.
Section 43. Entries in the Course of
Business. Entries mad at, or near the
time of transaction, to which they refer,
by a person deceased or unable to
testify, who was in position to know the
facts therein stated therein, may be
received as prima facie evidence, if such
person made the entries in his
professional
capacity
or
in
the
performance of duty and in the ordinary
or regular course of business of duty.
Requisites:
1. The person made the entry in his
professional capacity or in the
performance of a duty
2. Entry was made in the ordinary or
regular course of business or duty
3. Was made at the time or near the
time of the transaction to which it
relates
4. The person is dead, unable to testify
or outside the Philippines.
Section 44. Entries in official records.
Entries in official records made in the
performance of his duty, by a public
officer of the Philippines, or by a person
in the performance of a duty specially
enjoined by law, are prima facie
evidence of the facts therein stated.
Requisites:
1. Entries made by a public officer or
another person specially enjoined by
law to do so
2. Public officer or the person had
sufficient knowledge of the facts by
him stated, which must have been
acquired by him personally or though
official information.

Section 45: Commercial list and the like.

Evidence of statement of matter of interest
in an occupation contained in a list,
register, periodical, or other published
compilation is admissible as tending to
prove the truth to any relevant matter so
stated, if that compilation is published for
use of the person engaged in that
occupation and is generally used and relied
upon by them.
Section 46: Learned Treaties: A published
treaties, periodical or pamphlet on a
subject of history, law, science or art is
admissible as tending to prove the truth of
a matter stated therein if the courts take
judicial notice, or a witness expert in the
subject testifies, that the writer of the
statement in the treaties, periodical or
pamphlet is recognized in his profession or
calling as expert in the subject.
Section 47. Testimony or deposition at a
former proceeding. The testimony or

deposition of a witness deceased or unable

to testify, given in a former case or
proceeding, judicial or administrative,
involving the same parties and subject
matter, may be given in evidence against
the adverse party who had the opportunity
to cross examine him.