G.R. No. 143646 - Spouses Lim vs. Vera Cruz

Fernando Guevarra and Marcos Guevarra, the petitioners, filed a criminal complaint on June 28, 1944, charging public officials with the offense of falsification of public documents under Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code.
The charged respondents included:

Hermogenes Caluag, Provincial Fiscal of Tayabas;
Pastor C. Javier, Municipal Mayor of Candelaria, Tayabas;
Carlos A. Buendia, Justice of the Peace of Sariaya and Candelaria, Tayabas;
Sebastian A. Liwag, Clerk of the Court of the Justice of the Peace of Candelaria, Tayabas.

Two days after the filing of the complaint, the respondent court (a Court of First Instance of Tayabas) ordered the return of the complaint to the petitioners.
The reason given was that the Ministry of Justice or the Bureau of Public Prosecution should be consulted prior to the case being entertained.
A motion for reconsideration filed by the petitioners was subsequently denied on July 14, 1944.

The petitioners died while in Bilibid Prison, as reported by the Director of Prisons.
Emilio Guevarra and Ciriaco Guevarra, son and brother respectively of the petitioners, filed a motion to substitute themselves as petitioners.
The key factual issue raised by this substitution was whether the cause of action—stemming from the failure to conduct a preliminary investigation on the criminal complaint—survived the death of the original petitioners.

The cause of action was based on the petitioners’ personal right to file a complaint as the offended party, a right inherently tied to the complainants themselves.
It was argued that because the right to subscribe and file a complaint is strictly personal, the cause of action abated upon the petitioners’ death.

The Rules of Court require that a criminal complaint be filed by the offended party, as stated in section 2, Rule 106, and further detailed in section 5 concerning the sufficiency of such a complaint.
The statutory framework emphasizes that criminal actions, though prosecuted by the fiscal, are initiated by the offended party’s complaint, lending a personal character to the filing.

Whether the right of the petitioners to file a complaint for the crime of falsification of public documents is an entirely personal right that abates upon their death.
Whether the cause of action—which is predicated on the filing of the complaint—survives the death of the complainants, thereby allowing their heirs or legal representatives (Emilio and Ciriaco Guevarra) to substitute in the pending mandamus proceedings.
The proper interpretation of the Rules of Court regarding the substitutability of parties and the survival of personal rights in mandamus actions, given that mandamus is categorized as a special civil action.