G.R. No. L-30485 - Aquino vs. Mariano

On October 9, 1968, then Rizal Provincial Fiscal Benjamin H. Aquino filed an information in the then Court of First Instance at Pasig, Rizal, docketed as Criminal Case No. 18425, entitled “The People of the Philippines vs. Rodolfo Cenidoza, Jose R. Baricua, Cesario B. Ong, Lucio Adriano, Jr. and Adriano Castillo,” for estafa thru falsification of official and/or public documents.
The criminal case arose from a huge expansion in the area after a resurvey and subdivision of a certain parcel of registered land in Muntinlupa, Rizal, and the approval by certain officials of the Land Registration Commission of the corresponding plans and technical descriptions prepared by the surveyor who resurveyed and subdivided the property.
Criminal Case No. 18425 was assigned to the branch of the then Court of First Instance of Rizal presided by Hon. Pedro Revilla.

On October 27, 1968, Lucio Adriano, Jr., one of the defendants in Criminal Case No. 18425, instituted a petition for mandamus in the then Court of First Instance of Rizal.
In the mandamus petition, Adriano sought an order directing Fiscal Aquino to include as defendants in the information filed in Criminal Case No. 18425 (not 18245) all persons of whom he found a prima facie case, as stated in Annex “B” of his petition.
Adriano particularly sought inclusion of Commissioner Antonio Noblejas of the Land Registration Commission, who had resigned in the meantime.
The mandamus case, docketed as Civil Case No. 11307, was assigned to Branch X, presided by respondent Judge Herminio C. Mariano.
Judge Mariano rendered a decision dated March 28, 1969, granting the petition for mandamus.
The decision’s dispositive portion directed Fiscal Aquino to include as accused in Criminal Case No. 18425 all persons, including Commissioner Antonio Noblejas, against whom Fiscal Aquino found a prima facie case as stated by him in a second indorsement dated June 20, 1968 addressed to the Secretary of Justice (a copy was attached as Annex “B” to the petition), and ordered: “Let the corresponding Writ of Mandamus issue.”

Fiscal Aquino then filed a petition for review by certiorari, praying that the March 28, 1969 decision of respondent court be set aside and declaring that he could not be compelled to include former Commissioner Antonio Noblejas as one of the accused in Criminal Case No. 18425.
The decision sought to be reviewed reflected that Fiscal Aquino conducted preliminary investigation and, in his second indorsement dated June 20, 1968 to the Secretary of Justice, he expressed the view that a ...(Subscriber-Only)

Whether mandamus was the proper and available remedy for Adriano, Jr. to compel Fiscal Aquino to include Commissioner Antonio Noblejas as an accused

Whether the prerequisites for mandamus existed, considering that mandamus is an extraordinary remedy requiring the absence of other plain, speedy, and adequate remedies in the ordinary course of law.
Whether Adriano, Jr. failed to exhaust remedies available in the ordinary course of law, specifically by not first filing a motion in the criminal case to amend or include...(Subscriber-Only)