القاعدة ذات الصلة
Philippines
Practice Relating to Rule 154. Obedience to Superior Orders
The Code of Ethics (1991) of the Philippines provides:
Every officer and soldier shall obey the lawful orders of his immediate superior. Anyone who shall refuse or fail to carry out a lawful order from the military chain of command shall be subject to military discipline.
Philippines, Armed Forces of the Philippines Code of Ethics, 1991, Section 2.3, pp. 16–17.
In its judgment in the Margen case in 1950, the Supreme Court of the Philippines held: “Obedience to an order of a superior gives rise to exemption from criminal liability only when the order is for some lawful purpose … [In this case] the order was illegal, and appellant was not bound to obey it.”
Philippines, Supreme Court, Margen case, Judgment, 30 March 1950.
The Report on the Practice of the Philippines, referring to a provision of the Revised Penal Code which provides that “any person who acts in obedience to an order issued by a superior for some lawful purpose” does not incur any criminal liability, states: “However, if the order is obviously illegal, the person has the duty to disobey it.”
Report on the Practice of Philippines, 1997, Chapter 6.9, referring to Revised Penal Code, 1930, Article 11(6).
