Capitol Consultant lawyer Benjamin Cabrido Jr. told Cebu media that buying properties acquired either through theft or robbery could be a crime punishable under the Anti-Fencing Law or Presidential Decree No. 1612.
Atty. Cabrido, a consultant of the Cebu Provincial Government, was reacting to the National Museum of the Philippines’ (NMP) statement that the agency is exercising “dynamic ownership” of Boljoon Church’s four pulpit panels that illegally disappeared from the Church in 1989.
“There is no such thing as dynamic ownership because ownership cannot be transferred through theft or through robbery. Even if they will say that we bought these from this person, it will not change the character of that thing and make it a valid object in a contract of sale,” the lawyer, who is also a law professor, said in a press conference on February 19 at the Governor’s Office.
“There was no point in the dynamic transfers of these four artifacts that would convert it into a legal object. Since it was an illicit object, it is illicit all throughout,” he added.
The NMP maintained that it came into possession of the panels after private collectors Edwin and Aileen Bautista donated it to the agency.
