Dimatulac vs Villon

G.R. No. 127107,October 12, 1998

Facts:
A petition for certiorari, prohibition and mandamus had been filed in Court to assail the
decision of the trial court in dismissing the earlier decision to set aside the arraignment of the
accused and the decision of the office of the provincial prosecutor in giving due course to the
motion for reinvestigation against the accused in spite of not having been brought into the
custody of the law.

The petitioners contended that: the honorable judge gravely abuse his discretion in
dismissing the earlier decision to set aside the arraignment of the accused and the prosecutor in
giving due course to the motion for reinvestigation against the accused in spite of not having
been brought into the custody of the law.

The respondent judge in his decision mentioned that: the witness is more or less cedible
to be consistent with truth, human nature and natural course of things and lack of motives, the
evidence of guilt against him is rather weak compared with the others, which the court
recommends a cash bond of P50,000.00 for his provisional liberty, and the courts previous
order of no bail for said accused is hereby reconsidered. Ordered too the Clerk of Court to
forward the entire records of the case to the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Pampanga for
further action, together with the bodies of accused Francisco Yambao and Juan Magat to be
remanded to the provincial Jail of Pampanga. And the prosecutor resolved that: the murder
case filed changed into homicide as no circumstance would qualify the killing to murder and the
case be dismissed against accused Evelino David, Justino Mandap a.k.a. Casti David,
Francisco Yambao, Juan Magat, Arturo Naguit, Bladimir Dimatulac, Fortunato Mallari, Aniano
Magnaye, Gilberto Malabanan, Jesus dela Cruz and Joselito Miranda and bail recommended for
20,000.00 for Santiago, Servillano and Martin all surnamed Yabut, and one John Doe alias
Danny as conspirators in the crime of Homicide.

The resolution was appealed in the Office of the Secretary of Justice which ruled that
murder was committed and directed the Provincial Prosecutor to accordingly amend the
information, solely on the basis of the information that the YABUTs had already been arraigned.

Issue:
Whether the judge and the prosecutor committed procedural irregularities which
tantamount to the deprivation of due process of the aggrieved party.

Ruling:
Yes because the respondent Judge cursorily ignored the basic principle of when a
possible miscarriage of justice happens then he could have directed first the private prosecutor
to secure a resolution on the appeal within a specified time before acting on the case at hand.
The Court ruled that the respondent Judge committed grave abuse of discretion in rushing the
arraignment of the YABUTs on the assailed information for homicide. Again, the State and the
offended parties were deprived of due process.
As for the DOJ, they could have directed the public prosecutors concerned to show
cause why no disciplinary action should be taken against them for neglect of duty or conduct
prejudicial to the best interest of the service in not, inter alia, even asking the trial court to defer
arraignment in view of the pendency of the appeal, informing the DOJ, from time to time, of the
status of the case, and, insofar as prosecutor Datu was concerned, in disallowing the private
prosecutor from further participating in the case. And, it should have further inquired into the
vicissitudes of the case below to determine the regularity of arraignment, considering that the
appeal was received by the DOJ as early as 23 February 1996.
Thus, the Court decreed that the decisions and resolutions given by the Judges and
Provincial Prosecutor are void and set aside. They directed the Office of the Provincial
Prosecutor of Pampanga to comply with the order (letter) of the Secretary of Justice of 7 June
1996 by forthwith filing with the trial court the amended information for murder. Thereafter the
trial court shall proceed in said case with all reasonable dispatch.