People vs. Olarte,
G.R. No. 233209, March 11, 2019
First Division [Germundo, J.]
Facts:
PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar were members of Task Force "Boy Solo," a team formed in response to reports that a lone gunman was believed to be responsible for several robbery incidents at Pabayo and Chavez Streets in Cagayan de Oro City. On July 19, 2014, at around 1:30 P.M., PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar were conducting discreet monitoring operations in the area. During their watch, they noticed a man walking towards a branch of LBC Express, Inc. His features resembled "Boy Solo" whose image was shown in closed circuit television (CCTV) footages of past robberies in the area. As "Boy Solo" was about to enter the establishment, he pulled out a firearm. This prompted PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar to immediately run towards the suspect. "Boy Solo," however, noticed the police officers running towards him so he ran away. "Boy Solo's" companions – Randy P. Tandoy, Dexter D. Caracho and Rodel B. Rubilla, acting as his lookouts, also fled from their posts. They all boarded a Cugman Liner, a public utility jeepney heading towards the Cogon Market. Eventually, accused-appellant was arrested near Ororama Superstore in Cogon after a chase by PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar. His three companions were caught in a follow-up operation.
During the arrest, PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar searched accused-appellant's person and recovered a .25 caliber pistol replica, a fragmentation grenade with an M204A2 fuse assembly, a flathead screwdriver, and a transparent heat-sealed plastic sachet containing a white crystalline substance believed to be methamphetamine hydrochloride. PO2 Intud then wrapped the grenade with masking tape and marked it with his initials RMI2. Thereafter, the police officers brought accused-appellant to Police Station 1-Divisoria where the incident was recorded in the police blotter. PO2 Intud then turned over the grenade to the prosecutor but the latter refused to take custody of It. He handed it to Chief Investigator Senior Police Officer 2 Allan Radaza (SPO2 Radaza) who, in turn, entrusted it to the PNP Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team. The police officers found out that accused-appellant had no license or permit to possess the M61 hand grenade as well as the .25 caliber pistol, though a replica.
In the course of reconstituting the records, the prosecution moved for the amendment of the Information in Criminal Case No. 2014-830 (illegal possession of hand grenade) seeking to change the reflected fuse assembly marking from "M204X2" to "M204A2." This was eventually granted by the RTC.
RTC rendered a joint judgment finding accused-appellant guilty beyond reasonable doubt of illegal possession of a hand grenade, for the following reason: an accused may be arrested and searched without warrant when he/she is attempting to commit an offense. However, it dismissed the case of illegal possession of a .25 caliber pistol replica against accused-appellant because the Information in Criminal Case No. 2014-831 was defective. It only alleged that the pistol replica was merely possessed and not used in the commission of a crime as contemplated in Section 35, Article V of R.A. No. 10591.
CA rendered a decision affirming the ruling in Crim. Case No. 2014-830 of the RTC, ratiocinating that: (a) accused-appellant never questioned the legality of his arrest until his appeal; (b) accused-appellant was validly arrested and searched without a warrant as he was caught attempting to commit a robbery, making the hand grenade admissible in evidence as it was validly obtained; (e) it does not matter if the fuse assembly marking on the grenade, as stated in the information (Criminal Case No. 2014-830), differs from that stated in the arresting officers' judicial affidavits; the alleged discrepancy being "clearly a clerical error" as supported by other documentary evidence (July 28, 2014 Certification, Seizure Receipt, and Extract Blotter), thereby justifying the amendment of the information; and others.
Accused insists that: (a) his arrest was illegal because PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar merely assumed that he was "Boy Solo" based on CCTV footages and that "one cannot, without a warrant, arrest anyone based on similarities of physical attributes;" (b) "[a] waiver of an illegal warrantless arrest does not carry with it a waiver of the inadmissibility of evidence seized during the illegal warrantless arrest;" (c) the corpus delicti is doubtful because, when the subject hand grenade was presented in court, the marking "RJVII2" was not found on it and the fuse assembly marking stated in the original information did not match the grenade's serial number and others.
Issue:
Whether the warrantless arrest is valid and the hand grenade seized from the accused-appellant is admissible in evidence.
Held:
Yes. The concept of in flagrante delicto arrests should not be confused with warrantless arrests based on probable cause as contemplated in the second instance of Sec. 5 of Rule 113. In the latter type of warrantless arrest, an accused may be arrested when there is probable cause which is discernible by a peace officer or private person that an offense "has just been committed." Here, the offense had already been consummated but not in the presence of the peace officer or private person who, nevertheless, should have personal knowledge of facts or circumstances that the person to be arrested had committed it. More importantly, there is durational immediacy between the offense that had just been committed and the peace officer or private person's perception or observation of the accused's presence at the incident or immediate vicinity. Such is why probable cause is required to justify a warrantless arrest in cases where the peace officer or private person did not catch or witness the accused in the act of committing an offense.
"Probable cause" (in the context of warrantless arrests) has been understood to mean a reasonable ground of suspicion supported by circumstances sufficiently strong to warrant a cautious man's belief that the person accused is guilty of the offense with which he is charged. While probable cause to justify a warrantless arrest is required only in instances where the peace officer or private person who was present only at the time when the offense was committed believes (based on his/her immediate perception) that an offense had just been committed, some of its yardsticks for determination may be of help in ascertaining whether an accused is attempting to commit an offense. This is because the probable cause needed to justify a warrantless arrest ordinarily involves a certain degree of suspicion, in the absence of actual belief of the arresting officers, that the person to be arrested is probably guilty of committing the offense based on actual facts. And such determination of reasonable suspicion "must be based on commonsense judgments and inferences about human behavior."
Under the circumstances, PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar had a reasonable suspicion to arrest accused-appellant who was seen to have drawn a gun as he was about to enter LBC. Common sense dictates that police officers need not wait for a serious crime, such as robbery, to be consummated before they move in and make the arrest because it will definitely endanger the lives and safety of the public, as well as their own. This is consistent with the jurisprudential dictum that the obligation to make an arrest by reason of a crime does not presuppose, as a necessary requisite for the fulfillment thereof, the indubitable existence of a crime. Moreover, even if the firearm drawn turned out to be a replica, the police officers were not expected to know on sight whether the firearm was genuine or not, considering they had only a split second to act on any indication of danger. What was necessary was the presence of reasonably sufficient ground to believe the existence of an act having the characteristics of a crime; and that the same grounds exist to believe that the person sought to be detained participated in it. As a result of the validity of the accused-appellant's warrantless arrest, the incidental search and seizure of the items in his possession is also valid "to protect the arresting officer from being harmed by the person arrested and to prevent the latter from destroying evidence within reach."
Additionally, accused-appellant's argument that the CCTV footage cannot be considered as a valid basis for his arrest fails to persuade. While it is a long-standing rule that reliable information alone (such as footage from a CCTV recording) is not sufficient to justify a warrantless arrest, the rule only requires that the accused perform some overt act that would indicate that he has committed, is actually committing, or is attempting to commit an offense. Therefore, it does not matter that accused-appellant was previously identified only from a CCTV footage supposedly covering his previous criminal conduct because he was seen by PO2 Intud and PO2 Monilar performing an overt act of drawing a gun as he was about to enter LBC.
In this case, accused-appellant failed to timely question the illegality of his arrest and to present evidence (or at least some reasonable explanation) to substantiate his alleged wrongful detention. This renders the warrantless arrest and the accompanying search valid; thus, affirming the RTC's jurisdiction over his person and making all the items, confiscated from accused-appellant, admissible in evidence. Hence, the CA did not err in affirming the RTC's validation of accused-appellant's warrantless arrest and incidental search.
Object evidence is classified into: (a) actual, physical or "autoptic evidence: those which have a direct relation or part in the fact or incident sought to be proven and those brought to the court for personal examination by the presiding magistrate; and (b) demonstrative evidence: those which represent the actual or physical object (or event in the case of pictures or videos) being offered to support or draw an inference or to aid in comprehending the verbal testimony of a witness. Further, actual evidence is subdivided into three categories: (a) those that have readily identifiable marks (unique objects); (b) those that are made readily identifiable (objects made unique) and (c) those with no identifying marks (non-unique objects).
The Court promulgated the Judicial Affidavit Rule which mandates parties to file, not later than five days before pre-trial or preliminary conference, judicial affidavits executed by their witnesses which shall take the place of their direct testimonies. Here, parties seeking to offer documentary and/or object evidence are now required to describe, authenticate, and make the same evidence form part of the witness' judicial affidavit under the said Rule. Therefore, as a rule, object evidence now requires authentication or testimonial sponsorship before it may be admitted or considered by the court.
In the case at hand, the chain of custody rule does not apply to an undetonated grenade (an object made unique), for it is not amorphous and its form is relatively resistant to change. A witness of the prosecution need only identify the hand grenade, a structured object, based on personal knowledge that the same contraband or article is what it purports to be—that it came from the person of accused-appellant. Even assuming arguendo that the chain of custody rule applies to dispel supposed doubts as to the grenade's existence and source, the integrity and evidentiary value of the explosive had been sufficiently established by the prosecution. As aptly observed by the CA: As previously stated, PO2 Intud, SPO2 Radaza and SPO2 Tingson positively testified as to the integrity and evidentiary value of the grenade presented in court, marked as Exhibit "B-1." PO2 Intud testified that it is the same grenade confiscated from the accused-appellant at the time of his arrest. SPO2 Radaza testified that it is the same grenade turned over [to] him by PO2 Intud. SPO2 Tiongson testified that it is the same grenade turned over to him by SPO2 Radaza. Thus, there is no break in the chain of custody of the grenade confiscated from the accused-appellant.
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