QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 10660)
RA 10660 amends PD 1606 to provide that the Sandiganbayan shall sit in seven (7) divisions of three (3) members each.
Two (2) members constitute a quorum for sessions in divisions.
The Presiding Justice may designate a member of another division, determined by strict rotation based on the reverse order of precedence, to sit as a special member of the division, with all rights and prerogatives of a regular member for trial and determination of cases assigned to that division.
RA 10660 provides that the concurrence of a majority of the members of a division is necessary to render a judgment, decision, final order, or to resolve interlocutory or incidental motions.
All three (3) members of a division shall deliberate on all matters submitted for judgment, decision, final order, or resolution.
The Sandiganbayan shall exercise exclusive original jurisdiction in all cases involving specified anti-graft/corruption offenses and other related felonies committed by public officials and employees specified under the law.
Violations of Republic Act No. 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), RA 1379, and Chapter II, Section 2, Title VII, Book II of the Revised Penal Code—when one or more accused are officials occupying the positions enumerated in Section 4(a) of the amended PD 1606.
Examples include (1) provincial officials such as provincial governors, vice-governors, and provincial treasurers/assessors/engineers and other provincial department heads; and (2) city officials such as city mayors, vice-mayors, city treasurers/assessors/engineers and other city department heads. Other enumerated categories include diplomats (consul and higher) and PNP officers at specified positions/ranks.
No. It explicitly includes officials occupying the positions in permanent, acting, or interim capacity at the time of commission of the offense.
The RTC has exclusive original jurisdiction where the information does not allege any damage to the government or bribery; or where it alleges damage to the government or bribery arising from the same or closely related transactions or acts in an amount not exceeding P1,000,000.00.
Subject to Supreme Court rules, such RTC cases are tried in a judicial region other than where the official holds office.
Exclusive original jurisdiction is vested in the proper lower courts (RTC, MTC, MeTC, or MCTC as applicable) pursuant to their respective jurisdictions under BP Blg. 129, as amended.
The Sandiganbayan has exclusive appellate jurisdiction over final judgments, resolutions, or orders of Regional Trial Courts, whether in the exercise of their own original jurisdiction or of their appellate jurisdiction provided by the law.
It includes petitions for mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, habeas corpus, injunctions, and other ancillary writs and processes in aid of its appellate jurisdiction, and petitions of similar nature including quo warranto, arising or that may arise in cases filed under Executive Order Nos. 1, 2, 14, and 14-A.
No. The law provides that the jurisdiction over these petitions shall not be exclusive of the Supreme Court.
Any provisions of law or the Rules of Court to the contrary notwithstanding, the criminal action and the corresponding civil action for recovery of civil liability must at all times be simultaneously instituted with, and jointly determined in, the same proceeding by the Sandiganbayan or appropriate courts. Filing the criminal action is deemed to necessarily carry with it filing the civil action, and the right to reserve separate filing is not recognized. If civil action was filed separately and no judgment has yet been rendered, it must be transferred for consolidation and joint determination; otherwise the separate civil action is deemed abandoned.
They shall be tried jointly with the public officers or employees in the proper courts which shall exercise exclusive jurisdiction over them (i.e., the law links their venue to the proper court’s exclusive jurisdiction over the public officers/employees).
RA 10660 applies to all cases pending in the Sandiganbayan over which trial has not begun. However, it clarifies that Section 2 (amending jurisdiction) and Section 3 (amending proceedings/majority vote) apply to cases arising from offenses committed after the effectivity of the Act.