This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2016-02-10 |
BRION, J. |
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| The records show that MERALCO presented no proof that it ever caught the respondents, or anyone acting in the respondents' behalf, in the act of tampering with their electric meter. As the CA correctly held, the respondents could not have been caught in flagrante delicto committing the tampering since they were not present during the inspection of the electric meter, nor were any of their representatives at hand.[15] Moreover, the presence of an outside connection attached to the electric meter operates only as a prima facie evidence of electricity pilferage under R.A. 7832; it is not enough to declare the respondents in flagrante delicto tampering with the electric meter.[16] In fact, MERALCO itself admitted in its submissions that Nieves was the illegal user of the outside connection attached to the respondents' electric meter.[17] | |||||
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2012-08-29 |
BERSAMIN, J. |
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| Belocura was caught in flagrante delicto violating Section 31 of Republic Act No. 4139 (The Land Transportation and Traffic Code).[21] In flagrante delicto means in the very act of committing the crime. To be caught in flagrante delicto necessarily implies the positive identification of the culprit by an eyewitness or eyewitnesses. Such identification is a direct evidence of culpability, because it "proves the fact in dispute without the aid of any inference or presumption."[22] Even by his own admission, he was actually committing a crime in the presence or within the view of the arresting policemen. Such manner by which Belocura was apprehended fell under the first category in Section 5, Rule 113 of the Rules of Court. The arrest was valid, therefore, and the arresting policemen thereby became cloaked with the authority to validly search his person and effects for weapons or any other article he might use in the commission of the crime or was the fruit of the crime or might be used as evidence in the trial of the case, and to seize from him and the area within his reach or under his control, like the jeep, such weapon or other article. The evident purpose of the incidental search was to protect the arresting policemen from being harmed by him with the use of a concealed weapon. Accordingly, the warrantless character of the arrest could not by itself be the basis of his acquittal.[23] | |||||