Posted By: Vincent Albien V. Arnado on 20 July 2018
FACTS:
The petitioner in the case appeared at the preliminary investigation before the Justice of Peace of Masantol, Pampanga, and after being informed of the criminal charges against him and asked if he pleaded guilty or not guilty, upon which he entered the plea of not guilty. "Then his counsel moved that the complainant present her evidence so that she and her witnesses could be examined and cross-examined in the manner and form provided by law." The fiscal and the private prosecutor objected, invoking section 11 of rule 108, and the objection was sustained. "In view thereof, the accused's counsel announced his intention to renounce his right to present evidence," and the justice of the peace forwarded the case to the court of first instance.
The counsel for the accused petitioner filed a motion with the CFI praying that the record of the case be remanded to the justice of peace of Masantol, on order that the petitioner might cross-examine the complainant and her witnesses in connection with their testimony. The motion was denied and for that reason the present special civil action of mandamus was instituted. Petitioner squarely attacks the validity of the provision of section 11 or Rule 108, on the ground that it deprives him of the right to be confronted with and cross-examine the witnesses for the prosecution, contrary to the provision of section 13, Article VIII of the Constitution.
ISSUE:
Whether or not Section 11, Rule 108 of the Rules of Court is an infringement to the provision of section 13, Article VIII, of the Constitution hence the decision of the majority is judicial legislation that diminishes the right of the accused.
HELD:
No. The Supreme Court ruled that section 11 of Rule 108, like its predecessors is an adjective law and not a substantive law or substantive right. Substantive law creates substantive rights and the two terms in this respect may be said to be synonymous. Substantive rights are a term which includes those rights which one enjoys under the legal system prior to the disturbance of normal relations. Substantive law is that part of the law which creates, defines and regulates rights, or which regulates the rights and duties which give rise to a cause of action; that part of the law which courts are established to administer; as opposed to adjective or remedial law, which prescribes the method of enforcing rights or obtains redress for their invasion. As applied to criminal law, substantive law is that which declares what acts are crimes and prescribes the punishment for committing them, as distinguished from the procedural law which provides or regulates the steps by which one who commits a crime is to be punished Preliminary investigation is eminently and essentially remedial; it is the first step taken in a criminal prosecution.
As a rule of evidence, section 11 of Rule 108 is also procedural. Evidence — which is the "the mode and manner of proving the competent facts and circumstances on which a party relies to establish the fact in dispute in judicial proceedings" — is identified with and forms part of the method by which, in private law, rights are enforced and redress obtained, and, in criminal law, a law transgressor is punished. Criminal procedure refers to pleading, evidence and practice. The entire rules of evidence have been incorporated into the Rules of Court. We cannot tear down section 11 of Rule 108 on constitutional grounds without throwing out the whole code of evidence embodied in these Rules. We do not believe that the curtailment of the right of an accused in a preliminary investigation to cross-examine the witnesses who had given evidence for his arrest is of such importance as to offend against the constitutional inhibition. As we have said in the beginning, preliminary investigation is not an essential part of due process of law. It may be suppressed entirely, and if this may be done, mere restriction of the privilege formerly enjoyed thereunder cannot be held to fall within the constitutional prohibition.
While section 11 of Rule 108 denies to the defendant the right to cross-examine witnesses in a preliminary investigation, his right to present his witnesses remains unaffected, and his constitutional right to be informed of the charges against him both at such investigation and at the trial is unchanged. In the latter stage of the proceedings, the only stage where the guaranty of due process comes into play, he still enjoys to the full extent the right to be confronted by and to cross-examine the witnesses against him. The degree of importance of a preliminary investigation to an accused may be gauged by the fact that this formality is frequently waived. It is inevitable that the Supreme Court in making rules should step on substantive rights, and the Constitution must be presumed to tolerate if not to expect such incursion as does not affect the accused in a harsh and arbitrary manner or deprive him of a defense, but operates only in a limited and unsubstantial manner to his disadvantage. For the Court's power is not merely to compile, revise or codify the rules of procedure existing at the time of the Constitution's approval. This power is "to promulgate rules concerning pleading, practice, and procedure in all courts," which is a power to adopt a general, complete and comprehensive system of procedure, adding new and different rules without regard to their source.
