People vs.

Buenviaje
G.R. No. 22945,
March 3, 1925.
Statutes: Parts of Statutes: How requirement of title construed

Facts:

Defendant Jovita V. Buenviaje was accused of violating the Medical Act, where the
information filed against her alleged that said defendant had been practicing medicine without
having obtained from the Board of Medical Examiners the necessary certificate of registration,
in the City of Manila, whereby she was further alleged that she assisted, treated, and
manipulated the head and body of Regino Noble, for the purposes of curing him of ailments,
diseases, pains and physical defects which he pretended to suffer from, and for advertising and
offering her services as a physician (doctor of chiropractic), evidenced by letterheads and signs
exposed on her office door, and in newspapers circulated in Manila, and adding the prefix Dra.
To her name, causing the public to believe that she was a legitimate doctor. Defendant admitted
said facts. She further admitted to collecting 1 from Noble for her services, and that she
graduated a doctor of chiropractic from the American University School of Chiropractic on 13-
Aug-1919, in Chicago.

Trial court found her guilty. Counsel for defendant appealed that the demurrer to information
should have been sustained when the information charged more than one offense (illegal
practice of medicine, and illegal representation).

Issue/s of the case:

- Whether or not chiropractic is a form of medicine regulated under the law.
- Whether or not the information was duplicitous.

Ratio:
1. Act 2711 (1917 Administrative Code)
Section 770. Inhibition against practicing medicine by uncertificated persons No person
shall practice medicine in the Philippine Islands without having previously obtained the
proper certificate of registration issued by the Board of Medical Examiners as herein
constituted, or the lawful Board which was its predecessor, except as hereinafter stated
in this section and in the next following section of this Act.

A person shall be considered to practice medicine within the meaning of this section,
who shall, for compensation or reward or even without the same, diagnose, treat,
operate, prescribe remedies for any human disease, injury, deformity, physical or mental
condition or any ailment, real or supposed, regardless of the nature of the remedy or
treatment used or recommended, or who shall, by means of signs, cards,
 advertisements, or in any other way either offer or undertake by any means or method
to diagnose, treat, manipulate, adjust, operate, or prescribe for any human disease, pain
injury, deformity, physical or mental condition.
2. Act 2711 (1917 Administrative Code)
- Section 2678. Violation of Medical Law A person violating any provision of the Medical
Law shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than 300, or by
imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both, in the discretion of the court.

Application of regulations involved:

1. Chiropractic is considered as practice of medicine, according to the statutory definition
of the term practice of medicine as found in Section 770 of the 1917 Administrative
Code (Act 2711). Hence, defendant was required to have the pertinent license to
practice, and having been found in want of one, is guilty of illegal practice.
2. Said provision did not distinguish between illegal practice and illegal representation.
Both are violations of the Medical Law, and are merely different ways of violating the
same law.

Held:
- Supreme Court ruled that there was no duplicitous information when the Medical Law
itself did not distinguish any specific violation, but mere violation of said statute is
punishable. Hence, for holding herself out as a practitioner of chiropractic when she was
not qualified, for falsely advertising and holding herself out to the public as a Dra. and a
practitioner of chiropractic, Jovita Buenviaje was found guilty of violating the Medical
Law. It was further concluded by the High Court that in order to use the prefix Dr. or
Dra., one must be a doctor of medicine, and such distinction has no application to
practitioners of chiropractic.