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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

EN BANC

[G.R. No. 32652. March 15, 1930. ]

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. TAN BOON KONG, Defendant-Appellee.

Attorney-General Jaranilla, for Appellant.

Alejandro de Aboitiz Pinaga, for Appellee.

SYLLABUS


1. CORPORATIONS; LIABILITY OF OFFICERS AND AGENTS. — A corporation can act only through its officers and agents, and where the business itself involves a violation of the law, the correct rule is that all who participate in it are liable.

2. ID.; ID.; CRIMINAL LIABILITY. — The manager of a corporation who fails to make true return of the corporation’s receipts and sales in violation of sections 1458 and 2723 of the Administrative Code, may be held criminally liable.


D E C I S I O N


OSTRAND, J.:


This is an appeal from an order of the Judge of the Twenty-third Judicial District sustaining a demurrer to an information charging the defendant Tan Boon Kong with the violation of section 1458 of Act No. 2711 as amended. The information reads as follows:jgc:chanrobles.com.ph

"That on and during the four quarters of the year 1924, in the municipality of Iloilo, Province of Iloilo, Philippine Islands, the said accused, as manager of the Visayan General Supply Co., Inc., a corporation organized under the laws of the Philippine Islands and engaged in the purchase and sale of sugar, ’bayon,’ coprax, and other native products and as such subject to the payment of internal-revenue taxes upon its sales, did then and there voluntarily, illegally, and criminally declare in 1924 for the purpose of taxation only the sum of P2,352,761.94, when in truth and in fact, and the accused well knew that the total gross sales of said corporation during that year amounted to P2,543,303.44, thereby failing to declare for the purpose of taxation the amount of P190,541.50, and voluntarily and illegally not paying the Government as internal-revenue percentage taxes the sum of P2,960.12, corresponding to 1
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