Facts: The petitioner, the incumbent mayor of Pagudpud Ilocos Norte, shot the former mayor and his political rival Atty. Benemerito. After the shooting, he surrendered himself and hence the police inspector and wife of the victim filed a criminal complaint for murder against him. The judge after conducting the preliminary examination (p.e. for brevity) found probable cause and issued a warrant of arrest. Also after conducting the preliminary investigation (p.i. for brevity), he issued a resolution forwarding the case to the prosecutor for appropriate action. Petitioner received a subpoena directing him to file his counter affidavit, affidavit of witnesses and other supporting documents. He did it the following day. While proceedings are ongoing, he filed a petition for habeas corpus with the C.A alleging that: the warrant was null and void because the judge who issued it was a relative by affinity of the private respondent and the p.e. and the p.i. were illegal and irregular as the judge doesn’t have jurisdiction on the case. The C.A. granted the petition holding that the judge was a relative by affinity by 3rd degree to the private respondent and the p.i. he conducted has 2 stages, the p.e. and the p.i. proper. The proceeding now consists only of one stage. He conducted the requisite investigation prior to the issuance of warrant of arrest. Moreover he did not complete it. He only examined the witness of the complainant. But the prosecution instead of conducting p.i. of his own forwarded the records to the Ombudsman (OMB for brevity) for the latter to conduct the same. The OMB directed the petitioner to submit his counter affidavit, but he did not comply with it finding the same superfluous. The graft investigator recommended the filing of information for murder which the OMB approved. Petitioner received a copy of the resolution but prevented seeking reconsideration thereof he filed a motion to defer issuance of warrant of arrest pending the determination of probable cause. The Sandiganbayan denied the motion. This is now a petition for review on the decision of the Sandiganbayan.
Issues:
(1) Whether or Not the OMB followed the procedure in conducting preliminary investigation.
(2) Whether or Not petitioner was afforded an opportunity to be heard and to submit controverting evidence.
Held: The proper procedure in the conduct of preliminary investigation was not followed because of the following reasons. Firstly, the preliminary investigation was conducted by 3 different investigators, none of whom completed the preliminary investigation There was not one continuous proceeding but rather, cases of passing the buck, the last one being the OMB throwing the buck to the Sandiganbayan. Secondly, the charge of murder is a non bailable offense. The gravity of the offense alone should have merited a deeper and more thorough preliminary investigation. The OMB did nothing of the sort but wallowed the resolution of the graft investigator. He did a worse job than the judge, by actually adopting the resolution of the graft investigator without doing anything and threw everything to the Sandiganbayan for evaluation. Thirdly, a person under preliminary investigation by the OMB is entitled to a motion for reconsideration, as maintained by the Rules of Procedure by the OMB. The filing of the motion for reconsideration is an integral part of the preliminary investigation proper. The denial thereof is tantamount to the denial of the right itself to a preliminary investigation. This fact alone renders preliminary investigation conducted in this case incomplete. And lastly, it was patent error for the Sandiganbayan to have relied purely on the OMB’s certification of probable cause given the prevailing facts of the case much more so in the face of the latter’s flawed report and one side factual findings.
The court cannot accept the Sandiganbayan’s assertion of having found probable cause on its own, considering the OMB’s defective report and findings, which merely rekied on the testimonies of the witnesses for the prosecution and disregarded the evidence for the defense.
Judgment is rendered setting aside the resolution of the Sandiganbayan, ordering the Sandiganbayan to quash the warrant of arrest and remanding the OMB for completion of the preliminary investigation.
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