Criminal Procedure Rule 110-113 and Rule 126

Question 1

Complaint

Answer 1

“Section 3 of Rule 110 - A complaint is a sworn written statement charging a person with an offense, subscribed by the offended party, any peace officer, or other public officer charged with the enforcement of the law violated.

Who can file?

1. Offended party
2. Any Peace Officer
3. Other Public Officer Charged with the enforcement of the law violated”

Question 2

Information

Answer 2

Section 4 of Rule 110 - An information is an accusation in writing charging a person with an offense, subscribed by the prosecutor and filed with the court.

Question 3

Search Warrant

Answer 3

Search warrant is an order in writing issued in the name of the People of the Philippines, signed by a judge and directed to a peace officer, commanding him to search for personal property described therein and bring it before the court.

Question 4

Valid Warrantless Searches

Answer 4

"1 Warrantless search incidental to lawful arrest recognized under Sec 12 Rule 126
2 Seizure of evidence in plain view
3 Search of a moving vehicle
4 Consented warrantless search
5 Customs search
6 Stop and Frisk
7 Exigent and emergency circumstances"

Question 5

Scope of Search Inicidental to a valid arrest

Answer 5

“It may extend beyond the person of the one arrested to include the presmises or surrounding under his immediate control.

It must be limited within the reach or control of the person arrested, or that which may furnish him with the means of committing violence or of escaping”

Question 6

Probable Cause

Answer 6

there exist a sufficient ground to engender a well-founded beilef that a crime has been committed and the respondent is probably guilty thereof, and should be held for trial

Question 7

Amendment and substitution distinguished

Answer 7

“1. Amendment may involve either formal or substantial changes, while substitution necessarily involves change from the original charge;

2. Amendement before plea has been enetered can be effected without leave of court, but substitution of information must be with leave of court as the original information has to be dismissed;
3. When amendment is as to form, there is no need for another preliminary investigation and the retaking of the plea of the accused; in substitution of information, another preliminary investigation is entailed and the accused has to plead anew to the new information
4. An amended information refers to the same offense charged in the original information or to an offense which necessarily includes or is necessarily included in the original charge, hence substantial amendments to the information after the plea has been taken cannot be made over the objection of the accused, for it the original information would be withdraw, the accused could invoke double jeopardy.

Substitution requires or presuposes that a new information involves a different offense which does not include or is not necessarily included in the original charge, hence the accused cannot claim double jeopardy.”

Question 8

Test whether the accused is prejudiced by the amendment

Answer 8

“1.Whether a defense under the information as it originally stood would be available after the amendment is made;
2. Whether any evidence defendant might have would be equally applicable to the information in the new form as in the other”

Question 9

Amendment is only in form when

Answer 9

Amendment is only in form when it merely adds specifications to eliminate vagueness in the information and not to introduce new material facts

Question 10

Prejudicial Question

Answer 10

“Rule 111 Section 7 The elements of a prejudicial question are:

(a) the previously instituted civil action involves an issue similar or intimately related to the issue raised in the subsequent criminal action, and
(b) the resolution of such issue determines whether or not the criminal action may proceed
(c) Lodged in different courts”

Question 11

Arrest

Answer 11

Arrest is taking of a person in custody in order that he may be bound to answer for the commission of an offense

Question 12

Guidelines in determining whether the offense is committed “in relation to the office”

Answer 12

“a) the offense cannot exist without the office

b) offense must be intimately connected with the office of the offender
c) The fact that the offense was committed in relation to the office must be alleged in the information”

Question 13

Distinction between Complaint and Information

Answer 13

“1)A complainst must be subscribed by the offended party, a peace officer or any public officer with the enforcement of law violated while an information can only be subscribed the the Public Prosecutor.

2)A complaint is under oath while an information is not under oath.

A complaint can be filed with the public prosecutor or with the MTCin the places other than chartered cities, for preliminary investigation or it can be filed with the proper MTC, or MCTC for trial in cases where direct filing is allowed by law. On the otherhand, an information can only be filed with the proper court for trial of the accused”

Question 14

Adultery and Concubinage

Answer 14

The complaint must be filed by the offended spouse and must be against both guilty parties unless one is already dead. Consent and pardon are valid defenses

Question 15

Seduction, Abduction and acts of lasciviousness

Answer 15

“shall not be prosecuted except upon complaint filed by the offended party (even if she is a minor UNLESS incompetent or incapable of filing the complaint for reasons other than minority) or by the:

1. Offended party’s parents
2. Offended party’s grandparents
3. Guardian or
4. The state”

Question 16

Duplicity of the offense

Answer 16

A complaint or information must charge only one offense, except when the law prescribes a single punishment for various offenses

Question 17

Amendment after plea

Answer 17

“After plea and during trial, a formal amendment may only be made with leave of court and when it can be done without causing prejudice to the rights of the accused

Requisites:

1. Amendment is merely formal
2. There must be leave of court
3. It must not prejudice the rights of the accused”

Question 18

Formal vs Substantial Amendments

Answer 18

A formal amendment come in the form of MINOR CHANGES in the information which merely states with additional precision something which is already contained in the original information, and which adds NOTHING ESSENTIAL for conviction of the crime charged. On the otherhand, SUBSTANTIAL AMENDMENT consists of MAJOR or MATERIAL changes in the information

Question 19

Substitution

Answer 19

“Section 14 RULE110
If it appears at anytime before judgement that a mistake has been made in charging the proper offense, the court shall dismis the original complaint or information upon the filing of a new one charging the proper offense in accordance with Sect 19 Rule 119xxx”

Question 20

Appearance of Private prosecutor allowed

Answer 20

The appointment of private prosecutor allowed where civil action is instituted in criminal action

Question 21

Private prosecutor may not be allowed

Answer 21

“not intervene when

a. waives civil action
b. reserves right to institute separately
c. institutes civil action prior to criminal action”

Question 22

Written Defamation

Answer 22

“whether the offended party is a public official or a private individual, the criminal action may be filed in the RTC of the province where the article is printed and first published

if offended party is a private individual, RTC of the province where he resieds at the time of the commission of the offense

If PUBLIC OFFICER, where the offended party held office at the time of the commission of the offense”

Question 23

Rule where offense is committed in a train, aircraft or vehicle

Answer 23

“Criminal action shall be instituted and tried in the court or any municipality or territory which the train, aircraft or vehicle passed during the trip

Including the departure and arrival.

When the offense is committed in the course of the trip”

Question 24

Preliminary Inquiry and Preliminary examination

Answer 24

“Preliminary investigation conducted by the prosecutor while preliminary examination is conducted by the judge

Preliminary investigation to ascertain whether the alleged offender should be held for trial while the purpose of preliminary examination is to determine the probable cause for the issuance of arrest

Preliminary investigation is executive in nature wihile preliminary examination is judicial in nature.”

Question 25

Warrant of arrest is not required in the following instances:

Answer 25

“1. Warrant of arrest is not required in the following instances:
a) when a complaint or information has already been filed pursuant to a lawful warrantless arerest

b) When the accused is charged for an offense punishable ONLY by FINE
c) When the case is subject to the RULES on SUMMARY PROCEDURe”

Question 26

Two Requisites of hot pursuit

Answer 26

“1) Offense has been committed
2) the person making the arrest has personal knowledge of facts indicating that the person to be arrested has committed it

Does not require that arresting officers to personally witness the commission of the offense with their own eyes. Personal knowledge of facts must be based on probable cause, which means an actual belief or reasonable grounds of suspicion.”

Question 27

Waiver of the illegality of the arrest; effect of illegal arrest

Answer 27

An application for admission to bail shall not bar the accused from challenging the validity of his arrest or the legality of the warrant issued, provided that he raises the objection before he enters his plea

Question 28

Arrest distinguished from search and seizure

Answer 28

“1. The rules on arrest are concerned with the seizure of a person. It involves the taking of a person in custody, A search may follow an arrest, but the search must be incident to a lawful arrest

2. An arrest may be made on any day at any time of the day or night. A search warrant is generally served in the day time, unless there be direction in the warrant that it may be served any time of the day or night.
3. Probable cause to arrest does not necessarily involve probable cause to search and vice versa.

In order to determine probable cause to arrest, the judge (not the prosecutor) must have sufficient facts in his hands that would tend to show that a crime has been committed and that a particular person committed it.

Probable cause to search requires facts to show that particular things connected with a crime are found in a specific location

4. In warrant of arrest, the judge is not necessarily required to make a personal examination before issuing a warrant of arrest.

In search warrant, the judge must before issuing it personally examine the complainant and the witnesses he may proudce in determining probable cause.”

Question 29

Ex parte application for a search warrant

Answer 29

“1. Application for search warrant shall be filed before any court within whose territorial jurisdiction a crime was committed

2. There are exceptions:
   a) application may be made before any court within the judicial region where the crime was committed if the place of the commission of the crime is known

b) with the judicial region where the warrant shall be enforced
c) application shall be made only in the court where the criminal action is pending, if the criminal action has already been filed”

Question 30

Requisites for the issuance of a search warrant

Answer 30

“1. The property subject of a search warrant is personal property, not real property A search warrant may be issued not only for the search but also for the seizure of the following:

a) personal property subject of the offense;
b) Personal property stolen or embezzled and other proceeds or fruits of the offense
c) personal property used or intended to be used as a means of committing an offense

2. Only personal properties described in the search warrant may be seized by the authorities”

Question 31

Can a judge quash an already issued warrant?

Answer 31

Yes. Inherent in the court’s power to issue search warrants is the power to quash warrants already issued. He is not precluded to subsequently quash the same, if he finds upon re-evaluation of the evidence that no probable cause exists.

Question 32

Probable cause in search warrants

Answer 32

Probable cause in search warrants means such facts and circumstances which would lead a reasonably discreet and prudent man to believe that an offense has been committed and that the object sought in connection with the offense are in the place to be searched

Question 33

DOCTRINE: Search warrant description

Answer 33

The warrant must sufficiently describe the presmises to be searched so that the officer executing the warrant may, with reasonable effort, ascertain and identify the place intended

Question 34

Principle of Adherence or Continuing Jurisdiction

Answer 34

“Once jurisdiction is acquired by the court it can never be lost, it continues until the court has done all that it can do in the exercise of that jurisdiction

Once vested, it cannot be withdrawn or defeated by a valid subsequent amendment of the information. It cannot be lost by a new law amending the rules of jurisdiction”