Disini vs.

Sandiganbayan

Ratio Decidendi:

The filing of the criminal complaints in the Office of the Ombudsman effectively interrupted the running
of the period of prescription. The criminal complaints were filed and their records transmitted by the
PCGG to the Office of the Ombudsman on April 8, 1991 for the conduct the preliminary investigation. In
accordance with Article 91 of the Revised Penal Code and the ruling in Panaguiton, Jr. v. Department of
Justice, 571 SCRA 549 (2008), the filing of the criminal complaints in the Office of the Ombudsman
effectively interrupted the running of the period of prescription.

The prevailing rule is, therefore, that irrespective of whether the offense charged is punishable by the
Revised Penal Code or by a special law, it is the filing of the complaint or information in the office of the
public prosecutor for purposes of the preliminary investigation that interrupts the period of prescription.
Consequently, prescription did not yet set in because only five years elapsed from 1986, the time of the
discovery of the offenses charged, up to April 1991, the time of the filing of the criminal complaints in the
Office of the Ombudsman.