Ampatuan vs. De Lima [G.R. No. 197291] Case Digest

Ampatuan vs. De Lima

G.R. No. 197291

 

Facts:

History will never forget the atrocities perpetrated on November 23, 2009, when 57 innocent civilians were massacred in Sitio Masalay, Municipality of Ampatuan, Maguindanao Province. Among the principal suspects was petitioner, then the Mayor of the Municipality of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao. The NBI and the Philippine National Police (PNP) charged other suspects, numbering more than a hundred, for what became aptly known as the Maguindanao massacre.

Petitioner pleaded not guilty to each of the 41 informations for murder when he was arraigned. Dalandag was admitted into the Witness Protection Program of the DOJ. Petitioner, wrote to respondent Secretary of Justice Leila De Lima to request the inclusion of Dalandag in the informations for murder considering that Dalandag had already confessed his participation in the massacre through his two sworn declarations. However, Secretary De Lima denied petitioner’s request.

Petitioner brought a petition for mandamus in the RTC in Manila seeking to compel respondents to charge Dalandag as another accused in the various murder cases undergoing trial in the QC RTC. RTC dismissed the petition for mandamus.

 

Issue:

Whether or not the public respondents may be compelled by mandamus to investigate and prosecute Dalandag in the informations for multiple murders.

 

Held:

No.

 

Ratio:

The prosecution of crimes pertains to the Executive Department of the Government whose principal power and responsibility are to see to it that our laws are faithfully executed. A necessary component of the power to execute our laws is the right to prosecute their violators. The right to prosecute vests the public prosecutors with a wide range of discretion – the discretion of what and whom to charge, the exercise of which depends on a smorgasbord of factors that are best appreciated by the public prosecutors.

The two modes by which a participant in the commission of a crime may become a state witness are, namely: (a) by discharge from the criminal case pursuant to Section 17 of Rule 119 of the Rules of Court; and (b) by the approval of his application for admission into the Witness Protection Program of the DOJ in accordance with Republic Act No. 6981 (The Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act).