Ex post facto laws and bills of attainder, Bill of Rights

1. Concept

No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted. (Section 22, Article III, 1987 Constitution)

An ex post facto law is one which, among others, aggravates a crime or makes it greater than it was when committed or changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed. (Nasi-Villar v. People, G.R. No. 176169, 14 November 2008)

An ex post facto law has been defined as one:

1) Which makes an action done before the passing of the law and which was innocent when done criminal, and punishes such action; or

2) Which aggravates a crime or makes it greater than it was when committed; or

3) Which changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when it was committed; or

4) Which alters the legal rules of evidence and receives less or different testimony than the law required at the time of the commission of the offense in order to convict the defendant; or

5) That which assumes to regulate civil rights and remedies only but in effect imposes a penalty or deprivation of a right which when done was lawful; or,

6) That which deprives a person accused of a crime of some lawful protection to which he has become entitled, such as the protection of a former conviction or acquittal, or a proclamation of amnesty. (Salvador v. Mapa, G.R. No. 135080, 28 November 2007)

A law can never be considered ex post facto as long as it operates prospectively since ...