Case Digest (G.R. No. 69863-65)
Facts:
Lino Brocka, et al. v. Juan Ponce Enrile, et al., G.R. Nos. 69863-65, December 10, 1990, the Supreme Court En Banc, Medialdea, J., writing for the Court.Petitioners (a group of individuals including Lino Brocka, Benjamin Cervantes, Cosme Garcia and others) sought relief originally by an application filed February 13, 1985 to secure their release by habeas corpus and to enjoin the City Fiscal of Quezon City from investigating charges of Inciting to Sedition against four of them. After informations for Inciting to Sedition were filed on February 11, 1985, petitioners filed a supplemental petition (February 19, 1985) to implead the presiding judge and to enjoin prosecution of Criminal Cases Nos. Q-38023, Q-38024 and Q-38025 and the issuance of arrest warrants and arraignment.
Chronologically, petitioners were arrested on January 28, 1985 by Northern Police District personnel during the forcible dispersal of a demonstration supporting a jeepney strike called by ACTO; they initially faced charges of Illegal Assembly in Criminal Cases Nos. 37783, 37787 and 37788 before Branch 108, RTC, Quezon City. Except for Brocka, Cervantes, Garcia and Santos (charged as alleged leaders and for whom no bail was recommended), the other detainees were released on bail. Judge Miriam Defensor Santiago directed provisional release on bail following hearings in early February 1985, but Brocka and the four leaders were kept detained by respondents who invoked a Preventive Detention Action (PDA) allegedly issued January 28, 1985; petitioners allege the PDA was not produced in original or certified form and was invoked belatedly (on February 9, 1985).
While the trial court had ordered release, assistant city fiscals filed informations for Inciting to Sedition on February 11, 1985 (Criminal Cases Nos. Q-38023–38025) without prior notice to petitioners' counsel; petitioners allege the inquest was a sham—affidavits appeared only after military representatives delivered complainants' statements—and that the sedition charges duplicated the allegedly same utterances forming the illegal assembly charges, thereby intended to prevent their provisional release. Petitioners were released provisionally on orders of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos (mid-February 1985), rendering the habeas corpus question moot; the Supreme Court, h...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Is the habeas corpus petition moot after petitioners' provisional release?
- May the criminal prosecution for Inciting to Sedition (Criminal Cases Nos. Q-38023–38025) be enjoined by the Court?
- Do the petitioners' allegations of manifest bad faith, sham preliminary investigation, misuse of a Preventive Detention Action, and the splitting of offenses justify injunctive relief a...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
- (Pro-only)
Ratio:
- (Pro-only)
Doctrine:
- (Pro-only)