Sayo vs COP, En Banc, 1948

Upon complaint of Bernardino Malinao, charging the petitioners with having committed the crime of
robbery, Benjamin Dumlao, a policeman of the City of Manila, arrested the petitioners on April 2,
1948, and presented a complaint against them with the fiscal's office of Manila. Until April 7, 1948,
when the petition for habeas corpus filed with this Court was heard, the petitioners were still
detained or under arrest, and the city fiscal had not yet released or filed against them an information
with the proper courts justice.

The principal question to be determined in the present case in order to decide whether or not the
petitioners are being illegally restrained of their liberty, is the following: Is the city fiscal of manila
a judicial authority within the meaning of the provisions of article 125 of the Revised Penal Code?

Article 125 of the Revised Penal Code provides that "the penalties provided in the next proceeding
article shall be imposed upon the public officer or employee who shall detain any person for some
legal ground and shall fail to deliver such person to the proper judicial authorities within the period of
six hours."

Taking into consideration the history of the provisions of the above quoted article, the precept of our
Constitution guaranteeing individual liberty, and the provisions of Rules of Court regarding arrest
and habeas corpus, we are of the opinion that the words "judicial authority", as used in said article,
mean the courts of justices or judges of said courts vested with judicial power to order the temporary
detention or confinement of a person charged with having committed a public offense, that is, "the
Supreme Court and such inferior courts as may be established by law". (Section 1, Article VIII of the
Constitution.)

Article 125 of the Revised Penal Code was substantially taken from article 202 of the old Penal Code
formerly in force of these Islands, which penalized a public officer other than a judicial officer who,
without warrant, "shall arrest a person upon a charge of crime and shall fail to deliver such person to
the judicial authority within twenty four hours after his arrest." There was no doubt that a judicial
authority therein referred to was the judge of a court of justice empowered by law, after a proper
investigation, to order the temporary commitment or detention of the person arrested; and not the
city fiscals or any other officers, who are not authorized by law to do so. Because article 204, which
complements said section 202, of the same Code provided that "the penalty of suspension in its
minimum and medium degrees shall be imposed upon the following persons: 1. Any judicial officer
who, within the period prescribed by the provisions of the law of criminal procedure in force, shall fail
to release any prisoner under arrest or to commit such prisoner formally by written order containing a
statement of the grounds upon which the same is based."

Although the above quoted provision of article 204 of the old Penal Code has not been incorporated
in the Revised Penal Code the import of said words judicial authority or officer can not be construed
as having been modified by the mere omission of said provision in the Revised Penal Code.

Besides, section 1 (3), Article III, of our Constitution provides that "the right of the people to be
secure in their persons...against unreasonable seizure shall not be violated, and no warrant [of
arrest, detention or confinement] shall issue but upon probable cause, to be determined by
the judge after the examination under oath or affirmation of the complaint and the witness he may
produce." Under this constitutional precept no person may be deprived of his liberty, except by
warrant of arrest or commitment issued upon probable cause by a judge after examination of the
complainant and his witness. And the judicial authority to whom the person arrested by a public
officers must be surrendered can not be any other but court or judge who alone is authorized to
issue a warrant of commitment or provisional detention of the person arrested pending the trial of the
case against the latter. Without such warrant of commitment, the detention of the person arrested for
than six hours would be illegal and in violation of our Constitution.

Our conclusion is confirmed by section 17, Rule 109 of the Rules of court, which, referring to the
duty of an officer after arrest without warrant, provides that "a person making arrest for legal ground
shall, without unnecessary delay, and within the time prescribed in the Revised Penal Code, take the
person arrested to the proper court or judge for such action for they may deem proper to take;" and
by section 11 of Rule 108, which reads that "after the arrest by the defendant and his delivery to the
Court, he shall be informed of the complaint or information filed against him. He shall also informed
of the substance of the testimony and evidence presented against him, and, if he desires to testify or
to present witnesses or evidence in his favor, he may be allowed to do so. The testimony of the
witnesses need not be reduced to writing but that of the defendant shall be taken in writing and
subscribed by him.

And it is further corroborated by the provisions of section 1 and 4, Rule 102 of the Rules of Court.
According to the provision of said section, "a writ of habeas corpus shall extend any person to all
cases of illegal confinement or detention by which any person is illegally deprived of his liberty"; and
"if it appears that the person alleged to be restrained of his liberty is in the custody of an
officer under process issued by a court or judge, or by virtue of a judgement or order of a court of
record, and that the court or judge had jurisdiction to issue the process, render judgment, or make
the order, the writ shall not be allowed. "Which a contrario sensu means that, otherwise, the writ
shall be allowed and the person detained shall be released.

The judicial authority mentioned in section 125 of the Revised Penal Code can not be construed to
include the fiscal of the City of Manila or any other city, because they cannot issue a warrant of
arrest or of commitment or temporary confinement of a person surrendered to legalize the detention
of a person arrested without warrant. (Section 7, Rule 108; Hashim vs. Boncan, 40 Off. Gaz. 13th
Supp., p.13; Lino vs. Fugoso, L-1159, promulgated on January 30, 1947, 43 Off. Gaz., 1214). The
investigation which the city of fiscal of Manila makes is not the preliminary investigation proper
provided for in section 11, Rule 108, above quoted, to which all person charged with offenses
cognizable by the Court of First Instance in provinces are entitled, but it is a mere investigation made
by the city fiscal for the purpose of filing the corresponding information against the defendant with
the proper municipal court or Court of First Instance of Manila if the result of the investigation so
warrants, in order to obtain or secure from the court a warrant of arrest of the defendant. It is
provided by a law as a substitute, in a certain sense, of the preliminary investigation proper to avoid
or prevent a hasty or malicious prosecution, since defendant charged with offenses triable by the
courts in the City of Manila are not entitled to a proper preliminary investigation.

The only executive officers authorized by law to make a proper preliminary investigation in case of
temporary absence of both the justice of the peace and the auxiliary justice of the peace from the
municipality, town or place, are the municipal mayors who are empowered in such case to issue a
warrant of arrest of the caused. (Section 3, Rule 108, in connection with section 6, Rule 108, and
section 2 of Rule 109.) The preliminary investigation which a city fiscal may conduct under section 2,
Rule 108, is the investigation referred to in the proceeding paragraph.

Under the law, a complaint charging a person with the commission of an offense cognizable by the
courts of Manila is not filed with municipal court or the Court of First Instance of Manila, because as
above stated, the latter do not make or conduct a preliminary investigation proper. The complaint
must be made or filed with the city fiscal of Manila who, personally or through one of his assistants,
makes the investigation, not for the purpose of ordering the arrest of the accused, but of filing with
the proper court the necessary information against the accused if the result of the investigation so
warrants, and obtaining from the court a warrant of arrest or commitment of the accused.
When a person is arrested without warrant in cases permitted bylaw, the officer or person making
the arrest should, as abovestated, without unnecessary delay take or surrender the person arrested,
within the period of time prescribed in the Revised Penal Code, to the court or judge having
jurisdiction to try or make a preliminary investigation of the offense (section 17, Rule 109); and the
court or judge shall try and decide the case if the court has original jurisdiction over the offense
charged, or make the preliminary investigation if it is a justice of the peace court having no original
jurisdiction, and then transfer the case to the proper Court of First Instance in accordance with the
provisions of section 13, Rule 108.

In the City of Manila, where complaints are not filed directly with the municipal court or the Court of
First Instance, the officer or person making the arrest without warrant shall surrender or take the
person arrested to the city fiscal, and the latter shall make the investigation above mentioned and
file, if proper, the corresponding information within the time prescribed by section 125 of the Revised
Penal Code, so that the court may issue a warrant of commitment for the temporary detention of the
accused. And the city fiscal or his assistants shall make the investigation forthwith, unless it is
materially impossible for them to do so, because the testimony of the person or officer making the
arrest without warrant is in such cases ready and available, and shall, immediately after the
investigation, either release the person arrested or file the corresponding information. If the city fiscal
has any doubt as to the probability of the defendant having committed the offense charged, or is not
ready to file the information on the strength of the testimony or evidence presented, he should
release and not detain the person arrested for a longer period than that prescribed in the Penal
Code, without prejudice to making or continuing the investigation and filing afterwards the proper
information against him with the court, in order to obtain or secure a warrant of his arrest. Of course,
for the purpose of determining the criminal liability of an officer detaining a person for more than six
hours prescribed by the Revised Penal Code, the means of communication as well as the hour of
arrested and other circumstances, such as the time of surrender and the material possibility for the
fiscal to make the investigation and file in time the necessary information, must be taken into
consideration.

To consider the city fiscal as the judicial authority referred to in article 125 of the Revised Penal
Code, would be to authorize the detention of a person arrested without warrant for a period longer
than that permitted by law without any process issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. The city
fiscal, may not, after due investigation, find sufficient ground for filing an information or prosecuting
the person arrested and release him, after the latter had been illegally detained for days or weeks
without any process issued by a court or judge.

A peace officer has no power or authority to arrest a person without a warrant upon complaint of the
offended party or any other person, except in those cases expressly authorized by law. What he or
the complainant may do in such case is to file a complaint with the city fiscal of Manila, or directly
with the justice of the peace courts in municipalities and other political subdivisions. If the City Fiscal
has no authority, and he has not, to order the arrest even if he finds, after due investigation, that
there is a probability that a crime has been committed and the accused is guilty thereof, a fortiori a
police officer has no authority to arrest and detain a person charged with an offense upon complaint
of the offended party or other persons even though, after investigation, he becomes convinced that
the accused is guilty of the offense charged.

In view of all the foregoing, without making any pronouncement as to the responsibility of the officers
who intervened in the detention of the petitioners, for the policeman Dumlao may have acted in good
faith, in the absence of a clear cut ruling on the matter in believing that he had complied with the
mandate of article 125 by delivering the petitioners within six hours to the office of the city fiscal, and
the latter might have ignored the fact that the petitioners were being actually detained when the said
policeman filed a complaint against them with the city fiscal, we hold that the petitioners are being
illegally restrained of their liberty, and their release is hereby ordered unless they are now detained
by virtue of a process issued by a competent court of justice. So ordered.

FERIA, J.:

It is obvious that the surrender or delivery to the judicial authority of a person arrested without
warrant by a peace officer, does not consist in a physical delivery, but in making an accusation or
charge or filing of an information against the person arrested with the corresponding court or judge,
whereby the latter acquires jurisdiction to issue an order of release or of commitment of the prisoner,
because the arresting officer can not transfer to the judge and the latter does not assume the
physical custody of the person arrested. And in the City of Manila it does consist in delivering
physically the body of the prisoner to the city fiscal, for the latter will not assume the responsibility of
being the custodian of the prisoner; nor in making or lodging a complaint against him with the said
fiscal, because the latter has no power to order the commitment or release of the prisoner by a
warrant containing the ground on which it is based (auto motivado). Such delivery is a legal one and
consists in making a charge or filing a complaint against the prisoner with the proper justice of the
peace or judge of Court of First Instance in provinces, and in filing by the city fiscal of an information
with the corresponding city courts after an investigation if the evidence against said person so
warrants. Upon the filing of such information will the prisoner be deemed deliver to a judicial
authority in the City of Manila within the meaning of article 125 of the Revised Penal Code?

The city court or judge need not make an investigation of the facts alleged in the information, which
the judge or justices of the peace in provinces have to make before issuing the proper warrant,
because the law vest the power in the city fiscal, but said city judge shall determine only the legal
question whether said facts constitute an offense or violation of ordinances, and issue a warrant of
commitment if they do, or of release if they do not.

As a peace officer can not deliver directly the person arrested to the city courts, he shall deliver him
to said court through the city fiscal, and if the latter does not take the prisoner in time to the latter so
that the proper investigation may be made and information filed within six hours, he has to release
the prisoner in order to avoid criminal liabilty for violation of article 125 of the Revised Penal Code.
The city fiscal is not an agent of the arresting officer, but as prosecuting officer, he will be recreant to
his duty if he does not do his best to make the investigation and file the corresponding information in
time against the person arrested without warrant, in order to effect the delivery of the prisoner to the
city courts within the period of six hours prescribed by law, and thus prevent his being released by
the officer making the arrest. If the city fiscal does not file the information within said period of time
and the arresting officer continues holding the prisoner beyond the six-hour period, the fiscal will not
be responsible for violation of said article 125, because he is not the one who arrested and illegally
detained the person arrested, unless he has ordered or induced the arresting officer to hold and not
release the prisoner after the expiration of said period.