EN BANC
G.R. No. L-25223 May 19, 1971
PABLO SANIDAD, ET AL., petitioners,
vs.
HON. ALADIN BERMUDEZ, ETC., ET AL., respondents.
G.R. No. L-25632 May 19, 1971
MARIANO BANEZ, ET AL., petitioners,
vs.
HONORABLE ALADIN BERMUDEZ, ETC., ET AL., respondents.
No. L-25223:
Francisco Villanueva for petitioner Justo Mendoza.
Norberto J. Quisumbing for other petitioners.
Office of the Solicitor General Antonio P. Barredo, Assistant Solicitor General Pacifico P. de Castro and Solicitor Camilo D. Quiason for respondents.
No. L-25632:
Pablo Sanidad for petitioners.
Provincial Fiscal Juvenal K. Guerrero for respondents.
Separate Opinions
TEEHANKEE, J., concurring:
I concur in the result, but do so on the ground that the criminal action had been properly commenced by the fiscal complainant on behalf of the offended parties, under section 13 of Rule 112.ℒαwρhi৷ The cited rule speaks of a "complaint filed directly with the Court of First Instance, without previous preliminary examination and investigation conducted by the fiscal.1 The "information" filed by, the fiscal with the Vigan Court of First Instance was for all legal purposes a complaint on behalf of the offended parties within the purview of the cited rule. This was patent from the fiscal's motion, filed by him upon filing of the complaint (which he termed as an information), alleging that "the accused were from Narvacan, among them the municipal mayor and members of the municipal police of the town, and the accused being municipal authorities and residents of Narvacan, the witnesses were afraid to go to Narvacan to testify at the preliminary investigation of the case"2 and praying "that the attached information be docketed and numbered in this court and that municipal judge of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, be authorized to conduct the preliminary investigation."3
Respondent court, therefore, acted properly within the authority granted him in the cited rule, when instead of his own court conducting the preliminary investigation, he referred the "information" (complaint) to the municipal judge of Vigan for preliminary examination and investigation, as sought by the fiscal on behalf of the offended parties.
Footnotes
1 "Sec. 13. Preliminary examination and investigation by the judge of the Court of First Instance — Upon complaint filed directly with the Court of First Instance, without previous preliminary examination and investigation conducted by the fiscal, the judge thereof shall either refer the complaint to the justice of the peace referred to in the second paragraph of section 2 hereof for preliminary examination and investigation, or himself conduct both preliminary examination and investigation simultaneously in the manner provided in the preceding actions, and should be find reasonable ground to believe that the defendant has committed the offense charged, he shall issue a warrant for his arrest, and thereafter refer the case to the fiscal for the filing of the corresponding information."
2 Decision, at page 3, emphasis supplied.
3 Idem., at pp. 2-3.
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