November 2017 - page 6

FACTS: Petitioner was arrested on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued on an information charging him and three others with the complex crime of rebellion with murder and multiple frustrated murder committed during a failed coup d’état. Petitioner was taken to and held overnight at the NBI headquarters without bail, none having been recommended in the information and none fixed in the arrest warrant. ISSUE(S): Whether or not petitioner was deprived of his constitutional right to bail. HELD: YES. Holding that the Hernandez doctrine is applicable in the case at bar and that the information filed against the…

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FACTS: Appellant was charged with the illegal sale of a prohibited drug. After he was apprehended in a buy-bust operation, he was frisked and retrieved from him were the marked money used during the operation which he was asked to sign. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. ISSUE(S): Whether or not his rights to counsel, to remain silent and not to incriminate himself were violated while under custodial investigation. HELD: NO. Although he was not assisted by counsel when he initialed the P10-bills that the police found tucked in his waist, his right against self-incrimination was not violated…

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FACTS: Accused-appellant and two other suspects were rounded up in connection with a rape with homicide case. In the presence of the mayor, the police, representatives of the media and appellant’s own wife and son, appellant confessed his guilt, disclosed how he killed Marianne and volunteered to show them the place where he hid her bags. The confession was captured on videotape. ISSUE(S): Whether or not accused-appellant’s extrajudicial oral confession unassisted by a counsel is admissible in evidence. HELD: YES. The constitutional procedures on custodial investigation do not apply to a spontaneous statement, not elicited through questioning by the authorities,…

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FACTS: Accused-appellants and several others were charged with unlawfully transporting shabu into the country after thirty (30) boxes containing the prohibited drug were found among their baggage upon their arrival from Hongkong. They were ordered to sign on the masking tape placed on the said boxes. There were brought to Camp Crame where they were made to identify the signatures on the boxes and affix their signatures again. ISSUE(S): Whether or not the signatures of accused on the boxes, as well as on the plastic bags containing shabu are admissible in evidence. HELD: NO. By affixing their signatures on the…

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FACTS: Appellant was charged with the crime of rape with homicide of a four-year old girl. He was arrested and during the interrogation, he verbally confessed his guilt without the assistance of a counsel. On the basis of his uncounseled verbal confession, the police came to know where to find the evidence to support a case against him. He pleaded guilty during the arraignment and was tried, convicted then sentenced to death. ISSUE(S): Whether or not the evidence obtained through appellant’s uncounseled verbal confession may be admitted in evidence. HELD: NO. These are inadmissible evidence for they were gathered as…

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FACTS: In an information, accused-appellant and four other suspects were charged with murder. After being interrogated and grilled for two hours, he was requested to sign a document which turned out to be is extrajudicial confession/admission. ISSUE(S): Whether or not accused-appellant’s confession is inadmissible in evidence for being violative of the Constitution. HELD: NO. There was sufficient showing that accused-appellant was apprised of his constitutional rights to be silent and to counsel during the interrogation but he waived the same in the presence of his counsel. With such waiver, accused-appellant’s extrajudicial confession is deemed to have been made freely and…

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FACTS: Accused-appellant was arrested in connection with an information for robbery with homicide. He was interrogated until he verbally admitted his participation in the crime. ISSUE(S): Whether or not appellant’s extrajudicial confession is admissible in evidence. HELD: NO. When the accused is not assisted by counsel, his statement, in contemplation of the law, becomes “involuntary” even if it were otherwise voluntary, in a technical sense. A waiver of the constitutional right to counsel shall not be valid when the waiver is made without the presence and assistance of counsel. It is not material that appellant’s confession came in verbal form.…

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FACTS: Accused-appellant was apprehended on the strength of information given by his father of appellant having confessed to killing and burying his common-law wife. At the police station, appellant volunteered the information and led the police authorities to the said place where they dug the ground in the presence of residents thereat and recovered eight bones. ISSUE(S): Whether or not accused-appellant’s declarations were inadmissible for having been taken without the assistance of counsel. HELD: YES. The accused’s so-called admission, given after his arrest and during his custodial investigation, was obtained in total disregard of his rights as guaranteed by the…

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