Title
Monfort III vs. Salvatierra
Case
G.R. No. 168301
Decision Date
Mar 5, 2007
Petitioners accused private respondents of perjury over conflicting dates of a 1996 stockholders' meeting. Courts ruled no probable cause, citing lack of willful falsehood and good faith reliance on corporate records.
perjury
false statements
probable cause

Case Summary (G.R. No. 168301)

Factual Background

Petitioners are children of the late Antonio H. Monfort, Jr., an original incorporator of the Monfort Hermanos Agricultural Development Corporation (MHADC). Petitioners alleged that private respondents made false statements in counter-affidavits asserting that the 1996 annual stockholders’ meeting of MHADC was held on 16 October 1996 and that the private respondents were elected directors at that meeting. Petitioners relied on the 1996 General Information Sheet (GIS) of MHADC filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which indicated that the meeting and election occurred on 27 November 1996 and did not record an election on 16 October 1996.

Private Respondents’ Assertions

The private respondents maintained that they were stockholders of record, that an annual stockholders’ meeting was held on 16 October 1996 at which they were elected directors, and that the MHADC corporate accountant, Litonjua, Desabelle and Associates (LDA), prepared the 1996 GIS containing erroneous entries. They asserted that LDA admitted the error and later sent a letter to the SEC correcting the date and composition of the board, and that what transpired on 27 November 1996 was a special board meeting and not the annual stockholders’ meeting.

Initiation and Resolution of Preliminary Investigation

Petitioners filed a letter-complaint for perjury before the City Prosecutor of Cadiz, docketed as I.S. No. 8009. Investigating Prosecutor Abraham E. Tionko issued a resolution dated 14 April 1999 dismissing the complaint for lack of probable cause. Investigator Tionko found that the 1996 GIS was erroneous, that the alleged discrepancies could be due to mistakes by LDA, and that willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood by the private respondents was not established; he characterized the conduct as negligence or imprudence, which does not constitute perjury.

Regional State Prosecutor Action

Petitioners appealed to the Office of the Regional State Prosecutor for Region VI. Regional State Prosecutor Vicente E. Aragona denied due course to the appeal as filed out of time in a resolution dated 19 November 1999 and later dismissed a motion for reconsideration on 22 December 1999. Prosecutor Aragona sustained the conclusion that the 1996 GIS contained patent errors and held that such an erroneous document was worthless as proof of a deliberate falsehood by the private respondents, while also noting notices of meeting and registry receipts that supported the occurrence of a meeting on 16 October 1996.

Secretary of Justice Review

Petitioners elevated the matter to the Secretary of Justice. Undersecretary Regis V. Puno, in a resolution dated 11 October 2000, dismissed the appeal for lack of reversible error in the Regional State Prosecutor’s resolution. Undersecretary Manuel A.J. Teehankee denied petitioners’ motion for reconsideration on 15 August 2001, finding no new matter warranting reconsideration.

Court of Appeals Proceedings

Petitioners sought relief in the Court of Appeals. In a Decision dated 28 January 2005, the Court of Appeals affirmed the Secretary of Justice’s resolutions, holding that the Secretary did not commit grave abuse of discretion in finding no probable cause for perjury. The Court of Appeals concluded that the private respondents sufficiently established that a stockholders’ meeting occurred on 16 October 1996 and that the elements of perjury, specifically willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood, were not present. The Court of Appeals denied reconsideration in a Resolution dated 26 May 2005.

Issue Presented to the Supreme Court

The sole issue presented was whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the Secretary of Justice’s finding of no probable cause to indict the private respondents for perjury.

Petitioners’ Contentions

Petitioners argued that the private respondents’ insistence on an October 16 meeting and their attestations of election at that meeting constituted a willful and deliberate falsehood contrary to MHADC’s by-laws, which provided that the annual stockholders’ meeting and election of directors occur on the last Thursday of November. Petitioners contended that notices of meeting were incompetent, that the absence of an election entry in the 1996 GIS and the belated corrections by LDA showed malice, that corrections made two years later were a stratagem to evade liability, that the 1997 GIS reiterated earlier errors, and that prior dismissals by this Court in G.R. No. 152542 and No. 155472 indicated the private respondents’ inability to prove their status as duly elected directors.

Private Respondents’ Defense before the Prosecutor and Courts

The private respondents relied on documentary evidence including notices of meeting and registry receipts to establish that a meeting occurred on 16 October 1996 and that LDA prepared the GIS in error and later corrected it with the SEC. They asserted absence of malice and good faith belief in the truth of their sworn statements, explaining that signatures and certifications were made in reliance on LDA’s preparation and in haste to meet filing deadlines.

Legal Standard on Probable Cause and Perjury

The Court reiterated that the function of a preliminary investigation is to determine whether facts exist that would engender a well-founded belief that a crime has been committed and that the respondent is probably guilty, invoking the definition of probable cause as the state of facts sufficient to lead a person of ordinary caution to believe a thing is so. The elements of perjury under Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code were set forth: (a) a statement under oath on a material matter; (b) before a competent officer; (c) a willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood; and (d) the statement is required by law or made for a legal purpose. The Court emphasized that the third element requires intent, malice or conscious knowledge of falsity, and t

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