Given the circumstances obtaining here, the court finds the search
conducted by the port authorities reasonable and, therefore, not
violative of the accused’s constitutional rights. Hence, when the search
of the bag of the accused revealed the firearms and ammunitions,
accused is deemed to have been caught in flagrante delicto, justifying
his arrest even without a warrant under Section 5(a), Rule 113 of the
Rules of Criminal Procedure. The firearms and ammunitions obtained in
the course of such valid search are thus admissible as evidence against
[the] accused.146
When the crime is punished by a special law, as a rule, intent to commit the crime is not necessary. It is sufficient that the offender has the intent to perpetrate the act prohibited by the special law. Intent to commit the crime and intent to perpetrate the act must be distinguished. A person may not have consciously intended to commit a crime; but he did intend to commit an act, and that act is, by the very nature of things, the crime itself. In the first (intent to commit the crime), there must be criminal intent; in the second (intent to perpetrate the act) it is enough that the prohibited act is done freely and consciously . In the present case, a distinction should be made between criminal intent and intent to possess. While mere possession, without criminal intent, is sufficient to convict a person for illegal possession of a firearm, it must still be shown that there was animus possidendi or an intent to possess on the part of the accused . Such intent to pos...
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