The Law Student’s Introduction to: Criminal Procedure in the Philippines

This is for Philippine law students who are about to take Criminal Procedure, and have no idea how it works. Here are a few things I wish I knew before taking the class, with links for further reading.

Photo by Giammarco Boscaro

Where do you find the rules?

In Criminal Procedure, you will study, well, the rules of criminal procedure. All the rules are in the Revised Rules of Court (or 2000 Rules of Criminal Procedure), and Crim. Pro. begins from Rule 110.

Note that these are rules promulgated by the Supreme Court (remember the SC’s rule-making power under Sec. 5(5), Art. VIII of the Constitution?); they aren’t laws made by Congress.

Jurisdiction: From the MTC to the SC

Let’s begin with jurisdiction. What is criminal jurisdiction in the Philippines?

If you’re asked to define criminal jurisdiction, you can cite Florenz Regalado in his Remedial Law Compendium:

“Criminal jurisdiction is essentially the power of a State to try and punish a person for a violation of its penal laws.”

It’s a simple and effective definition. Keep rereading it until it makes sense. Don’t proceed to the next paragraph until you understand that definition.

Before we talk about the courts, there are three important principles about jurisdiction that you need to understand. You will very likely discuss this in class, so it’s incredibly helpful to understand them early on:

1. Jurisdiction over the Subject Matter. Basically: the court cannot rule on a criminal case if it does not have jurisdiction over the crime involved. According to Riano, subject matter jurisdiction is the authority of the court to hear and determine the particular case; it is basically jurisdiction over the offense charged. Still a little confusing? Okay, different courts have different jurisdictions, as will be explained further later. Some courts can rule on certain crimes, and some courts cannot rule on certain crimes. A court has to have jurisdiction over the subject matter (basically, the crime involved in the case) before it can rule on the case. Hence, jurisdiction over the subject matter is essential.
2. Jurisdiction over the Person of the Accused. Basically: the court cannot just rule on an accused who never showed up — that violates due process, since he cannot defend himself, among others; the court must first have jurisdiction over the accused. There are two ways for a court to acquire jurisdiction over the person: (1) through the enforcement of a warrant of arrest; or (2) through the accused’s voluntary appearance.
3. Territorial Jurisdiction. Basically: the court cannot rule on a case involving a crime committed outside its territory. Generally, the criminal action shall be instituted and tried in the court of the municipality or territory where the offense was committed or where any of its essential ingredients occurred (see Rule 110, Sec. 15). So, where the crime was committed determines the court which has territorial jurisdiction.

The court has to have all three, or the case can be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

Now, let’s talk about the courts. For this one, my reference is Riano.

There are different levels of courts. I will only enumerate the courts with a very brief description, but you can check this link for a complete list of the courts and their respective jurisdictions. Below is a list of the relevant courts from the first level courts, to the Supreme Court.

1. MTC (Municipal Trial Court; Municipal Circuit Trial Court; Metropolitan Trial Court) — The MTCs are the first level courts, for the smaller stuff like traffic violations and crimes punishable with imprisonment not exceeding six years.
2. Regional Trial Court — This is the court we see a lot in the jurisprudence we read. The cases which do not fall under the jurisdiction of other courts go here.
3. Sandiganbayan — This one is interesting and it involves a lot of memorization; anyway, it’s basically the court for criminal cases involving graft and corruption and higher public officials.
4. Court of Appeals — This is, well, the court of appeals. Appeals from other courts go here.
5. Supreme Court — This is the highest court in the Philippines. When it decides a case, you can’t appeal to a higher court.

Prosecutor, Fiscal, Ombudsman

Fiscal is just another name for the Public Prosecutors. They basically investigate and prosecute crimes. They’re like the lawyers for the side of the government and they go against the accused, while the accused gets his own lawyer.

The Ombudsman is the public prosecutor counterpart for cases involving public officials. The Office of the Ombudsman has primary jurisdiction over cases cognizable by the Sandiganbayan and, in the exercise of its primary jurisdiction, it may take over, at any stage, from any investigatory agency of Government, the investigation of such cases.

These are just primarily what they do, of course. The links above provide a full list of what they do.

How Do Criminal Actions Start?

For this part, I quote Riano in his 2016 work on Criminal Procedure:

If the offense requires a preliminary investigation, a criminal action is instituted by filing a complaint with the proper officer for purposes of preliminary investigation. [Otherwise], the action is instituted by filing the complaint or information directly with the MTC or by filing a complaint with the office of the prosecutor… In Manila and other chartered cities, the complaint shall be filed with the office of the prosecutor, unless otherwise provided in their charters.

What is a preliminary investigation? Rule 112 talks all about it. It’s an inquiry or proceeding to determine whether there is sufficient ground to engender a well-founded belief that a crime has been committed and the respondent is probably guilty thereof, and should be held for trial (Sec. 1, R. 112). Basically, it’s an investigation conducted to determine whether someone is probably guilty of a crime and should be held for trial. The investigation is generally conducted by the Prosecutors (Sec. 2, R. 112).

General rule: preliminary investigation is required for offenses where the penalty prescribed by law is at least 4 years, 2 months, and 1 day. Exceptions: (1) Where the complaint or information is filed directly in court; or (2) In the case of a lawful warrantless arrest. (See Rule 112)

What is a complaint? Is that different from an information?

A complaint is a sworn written statement charging a person with an offense. It is made by: (1) the offended party; (2) any peace officer; or (3) other public officer charged with the enforcement of the law violated. (Sec. 3, R. 110) Some crimes need the offended party to file a complaint, like crimes against chastity (see Sec. 5, R 110). This is the complaint referred to under Rule 110. (Note that this is different from the complaint filed with the prosecutor for purposes of preliminary investigation! For that one, it can be filed by any competent person so the preliminary investigation begins! Source: Regalado)

On the other hand, an information is an accusation in writing charging a person with an offense. It is made by the prosecutor, and it is filed with the court. (Sec. 4, R. 110) Anyway, you’ll learn more about these in class. The complaint or information charges someone with an offense, so such person becomes an accused.

Bail

Growing up, I thought bail was money you pay to get out of jail even if you’re found guilty with finality. That’s what TV shows made them look like. Anyway, I was wrong.

Sec. 1, Rule 114 has an official definition of bail. But put simply, bail is the security given (like money or property) so an accused doesn’t stay in jail while the case hasn’t been decided with finality. It’s like payment for temporary release, pending the final decision of the case, since as you know, the accused is usually arrested while the case is ongoing (I say usually, because if the penalty is just a fine, you don’t arrest the accused — see Sec. 6, R. 112).

You can’t pay to get out of jail when you’re decided with finality to be guilty. You just stay in jail until your time is up.

If you’re wondering, I keep using the term ‘with finality’ because when the accused appeals a decision, bail may still be allowed by the court pending appeal. But when the accused is finally decided to be guilty, with no more remedies available, no more bail for him.

Heads Up

When my Crim. Pro. professor (who was a Justice) gave questionnaires for our exams, they were very short. It was relieving for all of us, until we read the questions. In a nutshell, he made us answer the following:

1. Summarize the procedure in criminal proceedings. (Yup, the whole thing from Rule 110. I suggest using numbers or indicators such as “First,” “Second,” so your professor can read it better.)
2. What is the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan? The RTC?
3. When is bail a matter of right? When is it a matter of discretion?
4. Then he gave us one hypothetical question.

So, you should prepare yourself for questions like that for your exams. If you can answer the questions above (especially the first one), you’re prepared for hypos.

It would help if you could make a whole diagram illustrating the procedure, from institution of criminal actions until appeal. If that’s too much work, you can at least memorize the order and the headings of Rules 110 until 122, especially for finals. If you have that down, you have a general idea of the flow of criminal procedure, so you can play with that.

That’s all for the basics! Disclaimer: everything I’ve explained is based on how I understood them, and I’m only human. I placed sources, so you can check them to verify! If I made a mistake or if there’s a new doctrine, please leave a comment with a source and I’ll correct the error immediately!

If you want a more in depth discussion on certain Philippine law topics, leave a comment!