Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
GR No. 104879, May 6, 1994 and can be served not only within the territorial jurisdiction of the issuing
Nature of Action: Violation of PD 1866 (Illegal Possession of Firearms and court but anywhere in the judicial region of the issuing court (National
Ammunitions) in furtherance of Rebellion Capital Judicial Region).
Mode of Appeal: PETITION for review of a decision of the Court of Appeals.
8. Petitioners filed an MR – Denied
Petitioners: Malaloan and Luarez
Respondents: Judge Fineza (RTC-Kalookan) Judge Velasco (RTC-QC) 9. Petitioners filed a certiorari before the CA
Background Facts: A search warrant was issued by RTC Kalookan in connection 10. CA - Affirmed the RTC-QC judgment, denying due course to the petition
with petitioners alleged violations of PD 1866 perpetuated at Quezon City. for certiorari and lifting the TRO it had issued therewith.
Petitioners averred that the application for the search warrant in RTC Kalookan
was improperly filed, instead it should be applied in RTC QC, which has territorial 11. Petitioners now allege before the SC that The application for the search
jurisdiction over the criminal actions involved. The SC ruled that RTC Kalookan’s warrant, it is claimed, was accordingly filed in a court of improper venue
issuance of the search warrants was proper. ALSO read notes sa last part and since venue in criminal actions involves the territorial jurisdiction of
the court, such warrant is void for having been issued by a court without
Doctrine/s: jurisdiction to do so.
A search warrant is merely a judicial process designed by the Rules to respond only to an
incident in the main case, if one has already been instituted, or in anticipation thereof. In the 12. Petitioners used Circular No. 13, Circular No. 19 and Administrative
Order No. 3 to justify their contention that a search warrant must be
latter contingency, as in the case at bar, it would involve some judicial clairvoyance to require
applied in RTC - Quezon City if the illegal articles sought are in Quezon
observance of the rules as to where a criminal case may eventually be filed where, in the first City.
place, no such action having as yet been instituted, it may ultimately be filed in a territorial
jurisdiction other than that wherein the illegal articles sought to be seized are then located.
Judicial Process
Circular No 13 - had a number of requirements, principally a raffle of the a writ, warrant, subpoena, or other formal writing issued by authority of
applications for search warrants, if they had been filed with the executive judge, law; also the means of accomplishing an end, including judicial
among the judges within his administrative area. Circular No. 19 eliminated, by proceedings, or all writs, warrants, summonses, and orders of courts of
amendment, that required raffle and ordered instead that such applications should justice or judicial officers. It is likewise held to include a writ, summons,
immediately be “taken cognizance of and acted upon by the Executive Judges of the or order issued in a judicial proceeding to acquire jurisdiction of a person
or his property, to expedite the cause or enforce the judgment, or a writ,
Regional Trial Court, Metropolitan Trial Court, and Municipal Trial Court under warrant, mandate, or other process issuing from a court of justice.
whose jurisdiction the place to be searched is located,” or by their substitutes
enumerated therein. Guidelines on possible conflicts of jurisdiction where the criminal case
is pending in one court and the search warrant is issued by another
Circular No. 19 - intended to provide prompt action on applications for search court for the seizure of personal property intended to be used as
warrants and was never intended to confer exclusive jurisdiction on said executive evidence in said crime.
judges.
1. The court wherein the criminal case is pending shall have primary
jurisdiction to issue search warrants necessitated by and for the
In short, these circulars were issued by the Court to meet a particular exigency, purposes of said case.
that is, as emergency guidelines on applications for search warrants filed only in 2. When the latter court issues the search warrant, a motion to quash
the courts of Metropolitan Manila and other courts with multiple salas and only the same may be filed in and shall be resolved by said court, without
with respect to violations of the Anti-Subversion Act, crimes against public order prejudice to any proper recourse to the appropriate higher court by
under the Revised Penal Code, illegal possession of firearms and/or ammunitions, the party aggrieved by the resolution of the issuing court.
and violations of the Dangerous Drugs Act. 3. Where no motion to quash the search warrant was filed in or
resolved by the issuing court, the interested party may move in the
court where the criminal case is pending for the suppression as
evidence of the personal property seized under the warrant if the
same is offered therein for said purpose.
4. Where the court which issued the search warrant denies the motion City. The two trade union instructors, Elizalde Malaloan and Marlon Luarez, were later
to quash the same and is not otherwise prevented from further charged with illegal possession of firearms in furtherance of rebellion under Presidential Decree
proceeding thereon, all personal property seized under the warrant 1866; they were held for a few weeks before being released on bail. They are currently on trial
shall forthwith be transmitted by it to the court wherein the at the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City. The other trade unionists were released without
criminal case is pending, with the necessary safeguards and charge following interrogation at Camp Karingal in Quezon City, the headquarters of the
documentation therefor. Northern Police District. It is concerned that the evidence used to implicate them may have been
5. These guidelines shall likewise be observed where the same
criminal offense is charged in different informations or complaints planted by the arresting officers and by reports that, in the course of the trial, EILER staff
and filed in two or more courts with concurrent original jurisdiction members have received threatening telephone calls believed to be from members of the police
over the criminal action. or the military.
Military authorities claimed that they had found amunition, firearms and "subversive
documents" during the raid on the EILER seminar house. The accused and witnesses claimed
Circular No. 13 and Circular No. 19 were not intended to be of general that the arms and ammunition in question had been planted by the authorities, and denied that
application to all instances involving search warrants and in all courts as the written materials seized were subversive in content. The allegation of falsification of
would be the case if they had been adopted as part of the Rules of Court evidence was supported by the caretaker at EILER, Sol Trinidad, who stated that some of the
arresting officers had carried a plastic bag into the house and had placed it on the shelf where
Administrative Order No. 3 of this Court, supposedly “defining the limits they later claimed to have discovered arms and ammunition. The caretaker was made to sign an
of the territorial jurisdiction of the Regional Trial Courts,” was the source inventory of the items allegedly found on the premises although she had not been able to
of the subject matter jurisdiction of, as distinguished from the exercise of accompany the soldiers as they conducted their search.
jurisdiction by, the courts. As earlier observed, this administrative order
was issued pursuant to the provisions of Section 18 of Batas Pambansa
Blg. 129 - Background info taken from Amnesty International
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA35/016/1991/en/
SEC. 18. Authority to define territory appurtenant to each
branch.—The Supreme Court shall define the territory over
which a branch of the Regional Trial Court shall exercise its
authority. The territory thus defined shall be deemed to be the
territorial area of the branch concerned for purposes of
determining the venue of all writs, proceedings or actions,
whether civil or criminal. x x x.”
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NOTES:
On 25 March 1990, 62 people - including two trade union instructors, 58 workers from different
trade unions, a caretaker and her one-month old baby - were arrested during a raid by members
of the Philippines Constabulary's Capital Regional Command (CAPCOM) during a trade union
seminar at the Ecumenical Institute for Labour Education (EILER) Seminar House in Quezon