Source: http://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/1/38329
Timestamp: 2019-10-16 20:18:53
Document Index: 685243453

Matched Legal Cases: ['§2', '§5', '§5', '§2', '§1', '§5', '§1', '§1']

G.R. No. 131492 - ROGER POSADAS, ROSARIO TORRES-YU, AND MARICHU LAMBINO, PETITIONERS, VS. THE HON. OMBUDSMAN, THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR, AND ORLANDO V. DIZON, RESPONDENTS.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library
395 Phil. 601
[ G.R. No. 131492, September 29, 2000 ]
Petitioners Posadas, Marichu Lambino, and Rosario Torres-Yu, also of U.P., and a certain Atty. Villamor, counsel for the suspects, objected on the ground that the NBI did not have warrants of arrest with them. Posadas and Atty. Villamor promised to take the suspects to the NBI Office the next day. As a result of their intervention, Taparan and Narag were not arrested by the NBI agents on that day.[1] However, criminal charges were filed later against the two student suspects.[2]
Dizon then filed a complaint in the Office of the Special Prosecutor, charging petitioners Posadas, Torres-Yu, Lambino, Col. Eduardo Bentain, Chief of the Security Force of the U.P. Police, and Atty. Villamor with violation of P.D. 1829,[3] which makes it unlawful for anyone to obstruct the apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders.
On May 18, 1995, an information[4] was filed against them, alleging that:
That on or about December 12, 1994 and for sometime prior or subsequent thereto, in Quezon City, Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, above-named accused, namely: ROGER POSADAS, Chancellor; ROSARIO YU - Vice Chancellor; ATTY. MARICHU LAMBINO - Asst. Legal Counsel; and COL. EDUARDO BENTAIN - Chief, Security Force, all of the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, all public officers, while in the performance of their respective official functions, taking advantage of their official duties and committing the crime in relation to their office, conspiring and confederating with each other and with a certain ATTY. VILLAMOR, did then and there wilfully, knowingly and criminally obstruct, impede and frustrate the apprehension of FRANCIS CARLO TAPARAN and RAYMUNDO NARAG, both principal suspects involved in the brutal killing of DENNIS VENTURINA, a U.P. graduating student and Chairperson of the UP College of Administration, Student Council, and delaying the investigation and prosecution of the said heinous case by harboring and concealing said suspects thus, leading to the successful escape of suspects Narag and another principal suspect JOEL CARLO DENOSTA; that said above acts were done by the above-named accused public officials despite their full knowledge that said suspects were implicated in the brutal slaying of said Dennis Venturina, thus preventing the suspects arrest, prosecution and conviction.
THE HONORABLE OMBUDSMAN COMMITTED GRAVE ABUSE OF DISCRETION WHEN HE RULED THAT: 1) STUDENTS COULD BE ARRESTED WITHOUT WARRANT ON MERE SUSPICION; 2) PD 1829 INCLUDES ARRESTS WITHOUT WARRANTS ON MERE SUSPICION; AND WHEN HE REVERSED THE FINDINGS AND RESOLUTION OF THE SPECIAL PROSECUTION OFFICER, THE DEPUTY SPECIAL PROSECUTOR AND THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR, WHO CONDUCTED THE REINVESTIGATION OF THE CASE; AND FINALLY WHEN HE RESOLVED THAT PETITIONERS SHOULD BE SUBJECTED TO PUBLIC TRIAL WHEN THERE IS NO PROBABLE CAUSE AND NO BASIS.
SECTION 1, PARAGRAPH C OF PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1829 IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.[5]
First. In view of Art. III, §2 of the Constitution, the rule is that no arrest may be made except by virtue of a warrant issued by a judge after examining the complainant and the witnesses he may produce and after finding probable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has committed the crime. The exceptions when an arrest may be made even without a warrant are provided in Rule 113, §5 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure which reads:
Respondents contend that the NBI agents had personal knowledge of facts gathered by them in the course of their investigation indicating that the students sought to be arrested were the perpetrators of the crime.[6] They invoke the ruling in People v. Tonog, Jr.[7] in which it was held:
In that case, the accused voluntarily went upon invitation of the police officer who later noticed the presence of blood stains on the pants of the accused. Upon reaching the police station, the accused was asked to take off his pants for examination at the crime laboratory. The question in that case involved the admissibility of the maong pants taken from the accused. It is clear that Tonog does not apply to this case. First, the accused in that case voluntarily went with the police upon the latter's invitation. Second, the arresting officer found blood stains on the pants of the accused, on the basis of which he concluded that the accused probably committed the crime for which reason the latter was taken into custody. Third, the arrest was made on the same day the crime was committed. In the words of Rule 113, §5(b), the crime had "just been committed" and the arresting officer had "personal knowledge of the facts indicating that the person to be arrested had committed it."
"Personal knowledge" of facts in arrests without a warrant under Section 5 (b) of Rule 113 must be based upon "probable cause" which means an "actual belief or reasonable grounds of suspicion." The grounds of suspicion are reasonable when, in the absence of actual belief of the arresting officers, the suspicion that the person to be arrested is probably guilty of committing the offense is based on actual facts, i.e., supported by circumstances sufficiently strong in themselves to create the probable cause of guilt of the person to be arrested. A reasonable suspicion therefore must be founded on probable cause, coupled with good faith on the part of the peace officers making the arrest.[8]
To allow the arrest which the NBI intended to make without warrant would in effect allow them to supplant the courts. The determination of the existence of probable cause that the persons to be arrested committed the crime was for the judge to make. The law authorizes a police officer or even an ordinary citizen to arrest criminal offenders only if the latter are committing or have just committed a crime. Otherwise, we cannot leave to the police officers the determination of whom to apprehend if we are to protect our civil liberties. This is evident from a consideration of the requirements before a judge can order the arrest of suspects. Art. III, §2 of the Constitution provides:
Second. In ordering the prosecution of petitioners for violation of P.D. No. 1829, §1(c), the Office of the Ombudsman stated in its memorandum dated September 8, 1997:
To be sure, respondents knew fully well that inquest proceedings follow warrantless arrests. It is in this forum where the prosecutor conducting the inquest may rule on their opinion on whether or not the warrantless arrest effected was valid; he having the quasijudicial authority to rule on this matter. Of course, there are various remedies under the law which respondents may have likewise availed of or resorted to in order to secure the liberty of the SJ members had the latter been arrested, without prejudice to any criminal or administrative actions that they may have filed against the arresting NBI agents. However, it appears that they took the law into their own hands in a manner that obstructed and delayed the investigation being conducted by a law enforcement agency like the NBI. They facilitated the escape of the two SJ members pinpointed by eyewitnesses as among those who clubbed to death Dennis Venturina.[9]
The question is not whether petitioners had reasonable grounds to believe that the suspects were guilty. The question is whether the suspects could be arrested even in the absence of a warrant issued by a court, considering that, as already explained, the attempted arrest did not fall under any of the cases provided in Rule 113, §5. Regardless of their suspicion, petitioners could not very well have authorized the arrest without warrant of the students or even effected the arrest themselves. Only courts could decide the question of probable cause since the students were not being arrested in flagrante delicto. As the Special Prosecutor stated in his memorandum, dated May 18, 1995, in recommending the dismissal of the case against petitioners:
Based on all the foregoing, the obvious conclusion is that, there is no probable cause to charge Posadas, Torres-Yu, Lambino, Bentain and Atty. Villamor of violating Section 1(c) of P.D. 1829. Probable cause is defined as "sufficient ground to engender a well founded belief that a crime cognizable by the court has been committed and that the respondents are probably guilty thereof and should be held for trial" (Section 1, Rule 12, Rules of Court). The absence of an arrest warrant, the absence of knowledge or reasonable ground on the part of the accused to believe that the students had committed a crime, the absence of any law punishing refusal to attend an investigation at the NBI, all show that there is no sufficient ground to charge the accused with Obstruction of Justice. On the contrary, the circumstances show that the accused, in safeguarding the rights of students, were acting within the bounds of law.[10]
Third. Petitioners are being prosecuted under the following provision of P.D. No. 1829:
SEC. 1. The penalty of prision correccional in its maximum period, or a fine ranging from 1,000 to 6,000 pesos, or both, shall be imposed upon any person who knowingly or wilfully obstructs, impedes, frustrates or delays the apprehension of suspects and the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases by committing any of the following acts:
The rule, of course, is that a criminal prosecution cannot be enjoined.[11] But as has been held, "[i]nfinitely more important than conventional adherence to general rules of criminal procedure is respect for the citizen's right to be free not only from arbitrary arrest and punishment but also from unwarranted and vexatious prosecution."[12] As we held in the similar case of Venus v. Desierto:[13]
Conformably with the general rule that criminal prosecutions may not be restrained either through a preliminary or final injunction or a writ of prohibition, this Court ordinarily does not interfere with the discretion of the Ombudsman to determine whether there exists reasonable ground to believe that a crime has been committed and that the accused is probably guilty thereof and, thereafter, to file the corresponding information with the appropriate courts. There are, however, settled exceptions to this rule, such as those enumerated in Brocka v. Enrile, to wit:
In this case, petitioners' objection to the arrest of the students cannot be construed as a violation of P.D. No. 1829, §1(c) without rendering it unconstitutional. Petitioners had a right to prevent the arrest of Taparan and Narag at the time because their attempted arrest was illegal. Indeed, they could not have interfered with the prosecution of the guilty parties because in fact petitioner Posadas had asked the NBI for assistance in investigating the death of Venturina. On the other hand, just because petitioners had asked for assistance from the NBI did not authorize respondent Dizon and his men to disregard constitutional requirements.
The Office of the Ombudsman, however, found that the intervention by petitioners resulted in the escape of the student suspects as petitioner Posadas and Atty. Villamor failed in their undertaking to surrender the students the following day.[14] Hence, the information against them charged that petitioners willfully obstructed the apprehension of the suspects Taparan and Narag, leading to the successful escape of these students and another principal suspect, a certain Joel Carlo Denosta.[15] The student suspect mentioned by both the resolution dated May 18, 1995 and the information, a certain Joel Carlo Denosta, was not one of the students whose arrest by the NBI agents petitioners prevented on December 12, 1994. Moreover, whether or not petitioner Posadas surrendered the student suspects to the NBI agents the following day is immaterial. In the first place, they were not sureties or bondsmen who could be held to their undertaking. In the second place, the fact remains that the NBI agents could not have validly arrested Taparan and Narag at the U.P. Police Station as they did not have a warrant at that time. Hence, only the NBI agents themselves could be faulted for their inability to arrest Taparan and Narag. If the NBI believed the information given to them by the supposed eyewitnesses, the NBI should have applied for a warrant before making the attempted arrest instead of taking the law into their own hands. That they chose not to and were prevented from making an arrest for lack of a warrant is their responsibility alone. Petitioners could not be held accountable therefor.
Fourth. The conclusion we have thus far reached makes it unnecessary to consider petitioners' challenge to P.D. No. 1829, §1(c). For a cardinal rule of constitutional adjudication is that the Court will not pass upon a constitutional question although properly presented by the record if the case can be disposed of on some other ground such as the application of a statute or general law.[16]
[1] Annex A; Memorandum dated May 18, 1995, p. 2; Rollo, p. 38.
[2] Resolution dated Aug. 4, 1997, p. 5; Rollo, p. 52.
[3] Annex A; Memorandum dated May 18, 1995, p. 1; Rollo, p. 37.
[4] Annex C; Rollo, pp. 45-46.
[5] Petition, pp. 7-8; Rollo, pp. 9-10.
[6] Comment, p. 12; Rollo, p. 81.
[7] 205 SCRA 772, 778 (1992).
[8] People v. Doria, 301 SCRA 668, 709 (1991).
[9] Annex B; Memorandum dated September 8, 1997, pp. 2-3; Rollo, pp. 43-44.
[10] Resolution dated August 4, 1997, pp. 6-9; Rollo, pp. 53-56.
[11] Salonga v. Cruz Paño, 134 SCRA 438 (1985).
[12] Id., p. 448.
[13] 298 SCRA 196, 214-215 (1998).
[14] Resolution dated May 18, 1995, p. 2; Rollo, p. 38.
[16] Ty v. Trampe, 321 Phil. 81 (1995).