Case Digest (G.R. No. 242133)
Facts:
Roselyn Agacid y Dejanio v. People of the Philippines and Maria Alexandria Bisquerra y Nueva, G.R. No. 242133, April 16, 2024, the Supreme Court En Banc, Leonen, J., writing for the Court.Petitioner Roselyn Agacid (Agacid) was criminally charged under Section 5(a) of Republic Act No. 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004) after respondent Maria Alexandria Bisquerra (Bisquerra) filed a Complaint-Affidavit on August 31, 2014 alleging that Agacid slapped and stabbed her in the forearm during an encounter at Starbucks, Ali Mall, Cubao, Quezon City. Bisquerra sought medical treatment, then filed the police complaint which led to the Information in Criminal Case No. R‑QZN‑16‑10244‑CR.
Agacid moved to quash the Information and to defer arraignment and pre-trial, arguing the statute could not be used against a woman because, she claimed, RA 9262 was intended to protect women from abusive acts of men only. The Regional Trial Court (Branch 229, Quezon City) denied the motion to quash in an Order dated February 17, 2017 and likewise denied reconsideration in its March 20, 2017 Order; it set the case for arraignment and pre-trial.
Agacid filed an Amended Petition for Certiorari before the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals (Special Seventeenth Division) dismissed the petition, holding that certiorari was not the proper remedy to assail interlocutory orders denying a motion to quash and that petitioner had not shown grave abuse of discretion; it affirmed the RTC Orders in its August 24, 2018 Decision in CA‑G.R. SP No. 151014 (penned by Associate Justice Jane Aurora C. Lantion). Agacid then elevated the matter to the Supreme Court by a Petition for Review (the mode of review as presented in the rollo), challenging the CA decision and contending the trial court improperly relied on what she called obiter dicta in Garcia v. Drilon and that legislative intent showed RA 9262 was meant only to address abuses by men against women.
The Office of the Solicitor General (on behalf of the People) opposed the petition, urg...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Whether the Court of Appeals erred in denying the petition for certiorari and in holding that certiorari was not the proper remedy to assail the Regional Trial Court’s interlocutory orders denying the motion to quash.
- Whether Republic Act No. 9262 covers violence perpetrated by a woman against a woman in a lesbian intimate relationship (i.e., whether the statu...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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