This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2002-09-11 |
BELLOSILLO, J. |
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| of the regular courts. Petitioner concedes that the dismissal of the criminal action is without prejudice to the filing of an intra-corporate/civil case for violation of PD 902-A as amended by RA 8799 before the RTC which currently exercises jurisdiction over corporate matters. However, invoking the doctrine of primary jurisdiction, petitioner reasons that his corporate/civil prosecution must first be resolved before the criminal action could be filed. Citing Saavedra v. Securities and Exchange Commission,[1] petitioner argues that under the doctrine of primary jurisdiction the public prosecutor in the instant case has no authority to rule in a preliminary investigation on a criminal charge arising from an intra-corporate dispute absent prior resolution of the SEC on the matter. Petitioner notes that Saavedra does not deprive the public prosecutors of their jurisdiction to determine the propriety of filing criminal cases, but merely calls for a deferment of the exercise of such criminal jurisdiction pending prior determination by the pertinent administrative agency of the issues involved in the case. Petitioner contends that a violation of the doctrine of primary jurisdiction is jurisdictional in nature and is not rendered moot by RA 8799. Petitioner also avers that RA 8799 is not a curative statute and hence cannot apply retroactively. He explains that curative statutes are intended to retroactively apply to cases pending before their enactment to supply defects, abridge superfluities in the existing law and | |||||