This case has been cited 4 times or more.
|
2010-05-05 |
PEREZ, J. |
||||
| Our pronouncement in Jimenez v. Jimenez[59] as reiterated in Baltazar v. People is apropos: It is x x x imperative upon the fiscal or the judge as the case may be, to relieve the accused from the pain of going through a trial once it is ascertained that the evidence is insufficient to sustain a prima facie case or that no probable cause exists to form a sufficient belief as to the guilt of the accused. Although there is no general formula or fixed rule for the determination of probable cause since the same must be decided in the light of the conditions obtaining in given situations and its existence depends to a large degree upon the finding or opinion of the judge conducting the examination, such a finding should not disregard the facts before the judge nor run counter to the clear dictates of reasons. The judge or fiscal, therefore, should not go on with the prosecution in the hope that some credible evidence might later turn up during trial for this would be a flagrant violation of a basic right which the courts are created to uphold. It bears repeating that the judiciary lives up to its mission by visualizing and not denigrating constitutional rights. So it has been before. It should continue to be so. | |||||
|
2010-01-19 |
CORONA, J. |
||||
| We declared in Jimenez v. Jimenez[29] that | |||||
|
2008-07-28 |
CHICO-NAZARIO, J. |
||||
| Our pronouncement in Jimenez v. Jimenez[55] is timely:It is . . . imperative upon the fiscal or the judge as the case may be, to relieve the accused from the pain of going through a trial once it is ascertained that the evidence is insufficient to sustain a prima facie case or that no probable cause exists to form a sufficient belief as to the guilt of the accused. Although there is no general formula or fixed rule for the determination of probable cause since the same must be decided in the light of the conditions obtaining in given situations and its existence depends to a large degree upon the finding or opinion of the judge conducting the examination, such a finding should not disregard the facts before the judge nor run counter to the clear dictates of reasons. The judge or fiscal, therefore, should not go on with the prosecution in the hope that some credible evidence might later turn up during trial for this would be a flagrant violation of a basic right which the courts are created to uphold. It bears repeating that the judiciary lives up to its mission by visualizing and not denigrating constitutional rights. So it has been before. It should continue to be so. Petitioner's arguments before the Court of Appeals can be reduced to the allegation that respondent Judge gravely erred in appreciating the evidence presented; thus, he seriously abused his discretion, an act amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction - an error of jurisdiction, so termed. An error of jurisdiction is one in which the act complained of was issued by the court without or in excess of jurisdiction, or with grave abuse of discretion, which is tantamount to lack or excess of jurisdiction, and which is correctible by the extraordinary writ of certiorari. | |||||
|
2007-04-13 |
CORONA, J. |
||||
| While there was no doubt that petitioner (as the accused in the perjury case) was the party who would benefit from the deferment of the criminal proceedings, the right to ask for such suspension was not exclusive to him. A public prosecutor, although tasked to indict or bring an accused to court, is not at all precluded from withdrawing the criminal case if he has no sufficient evidence to hold him for trial.[16] In the same vein, he can also ask that the proceedings be held in abeyance specially if a prejudicial question exists. | |||||