This case has been cited 5 times or more.
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2010-04-23 |
MENDOZA, J. |
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| Consequently, petitioners cannot invoke the principle enunciated in Villaflor v. Vivar, [21] that failure to conduct a new preliminary investigation is tantamount to a violation of their rights. While it is true that preliminary investigation is a statutory and substantive right accorded to the accused before trial, the denial of petitioners' claim for a new investigation, however, did not deprive them of their right to due process. An examination of the records of the case discloses that there was a full-blown preliminary investigation wherein both petitioners actively participated. | |||||
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2006-12-06 |
VELASCO, JR., J. |
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| Verily, courts are given wide latitude to accord the accused ample opportunity to present controverting evidence even before trial as demanded by due process. Thus, we held in Villaflor v. Vivar that "[a] component part of due process in criminal justice, preliminary investigation is a statutory and substantive right accorded to the accused before trial. To deny their claim to a preliminary investigation would be to deprive them of the full measure of their right to due process."[39] | |||||
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2005-09-16 |
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| Preliminary investigation is 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. Although the right to a preliminary investigation is not a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution but a mere statutory privilege, it is nonetheless considered a component part of due process in criminal justice.[34] | |||||
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2005-04-12 |
CHICO-NAZARIO, J. |
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| Finally, as to petitioner's prayer that the Amended Information be quashed and dismissed, the same cannot be ordered. The absence[27] or incompleteness[28] of a preliminary investigation does not warrant the quashal or dismissal of the information. Neither does it affect the court's jurisdiction over the case or impair the validity of the information or otherwise render it defective. The court shall hold in abeyance the proceedings on such information and order the remand of the case for preliminary investigation or completion thereof. | |||||
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2001-02-22 |
PANGANIBAN, J. |
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| Petitioner also prays that the cases against him be dismissed for lack of preliminary investigation.[20] We disagree. In the first place, nowhere in the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure, or even the old Rules, is there any mention that this lack is a ground for a motion to quash.[21] Furthermore, it has been held that responsibility for the "absence of a preliminary investigation does not go to the jurisdiction of the court but merely to the regularity of the proceedings."[22] We reiterate the following ruling of the Court in People v. Gomez:"If there were no preliminary investigations and the defendants, before entering their plea, invite the attention of the court to their absence, the court, instead of dismissing the information, should conduct such investigation, order the fiscal to conduct it or remand the case to the inferior court so that the preliminary investigation may be conducted."[23] In sum, Criminal Case No. 24524 must be suspended with respect to petitioner even if the case is already undergoing trial, because "[t]o reach any other conclusion here, that is, to hold that petitioner's rights to a preliminary investigation and to bail were effectively obliterated by evidence subsequently admitted into the record would be to legitimize the deprivation of due process and to permit the government to benefit from its own wrong or culpable omission and effectively to dilute important rights of accused persons well-nigh to the vanishing point."[24] | |||||