With many lower courts engulfed in confusion, the Supreme Court (SC) has made it categorical: Drug suspects cannot plead guilty to a lesser offense without the consent of the prosecution and court orders granting such plea bargains are void.
In a 7-page decision on G.R. No. 247575, the SC 2nd Division annulled the August 24, 2018 order of the Naga City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 24 granting the motion of Edwin Reafor to plea bargain over the opposition of the prosecution.
The SC also annulled the September 6, 2018 judgment of the RTC convicting Reafor after he pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of possession of paraphernalia, punishable by 12 to 20 years in prison and a fine of P300,000 to P400,000.
The SC remanded the case back to the trial court for further proceedings on Reafor’s original charge of selling two sachets containing 0.149 gram of shabu, punishable by life imprisonment and a fine of P500,000 to P10 million.
The case reached the SC as the Court of Appeals (CA) in a December 17, 2018 resolution threw out the prosecution’s petition due to “several procedural infirmities,” such as the failure to file a motion for reconsideration (MR) before the RTC and the belated filing of the petition before the CA.
But, the SC said the CA should have disregarded these lapses because this was a “clearly meritorious” case where “the higher demands of substantial justice must transcend rigid observance of procedural rules.”
It stressed that “a defendant has no constitutional right to plea bargain,” and a prosecutor does not need to accept the offer to plea guilty to a lesser offense if he prefers to go to trial and prosecute the proper offense based on the available evidence.
“Under the present Rules, the acceptance of an offer to plead guilty is not a demandable right but depends on the consent of the offended party and the prosecutor, which is a condition precedent to a valid plea of guilty to a lesser offense that is necessarily included in the offense charged,” read the decision penned by Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe.
The SC added that in its February 18, 2020 decision in Sayre versus Xenos, it already upheld the validity of Department of Justice (DOJ) Circular Number 27, which mandates prosecutors to reject plea bargain proposals in certain serious drug cases and continue with the proceedings.
This naturally means that the prosecution cannot give the consent required for the approval of a plea bargaining offer.
“The continuing objection on the part of the prosecution based on DOJ Circular No. 27 will necessarily result in the parties’ failure to arrive at a mutually satisfactory disposition of the case that may be submitted for the trial court’s approval. In light of the absence of a mutual agreement to plea bargain, the proper course of action would be the continuation of the proceedings,” the SC said.
Thus, in Reafor’s case, the SC said his plea bargaining was void for lack of consent of the prosecution.
“Since the judgment of conviction rendered against respondent is void, it is only proper to resume with the trial of Criminal Case No. 2017-0053—which prior to respondent’s filing of his motion to plea bargain was at the stage of the prosecution’s presentation of evidence, without violating respondent’s right against double jeopardy,” the SC concluded.
Now-Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, and Associate Justices Amy Lazaro-Javier, Mario Lopez and Ricardo Rosario concurred in the decision.
Congrats po Sir. God bless you more!
Below is the write-up from the Supreme Court website:
Hon. Alexander G. Gesmundo is 27th Chief Justice
The Supreme Court today received the transmittal letter from the Office of the President on the appointment of Associate Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo as Chief Justice.
Chief Justice Gesmundo, the 27th Chief Justice of the Philippines, also took his oath before Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe at the En Banc Session Hall this afternoon.
Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen was also at the Session Hall while the rest of the Associate Justices and the Chief Justice’s immediate family witnessed the oath-taking via videoconferencing.
Chief Justice Gesmundo has to his credit 36 years of public service, with more than a decade and a half served in the Judiciary prior to his appointment to the top SC post. He will mandatorily retire when he turns 70 on November 6, 2026.
He earned his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1984. After passing the Bar Examinations in 1985, he entered government service as Trial Attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). He was awarded Most Outstanding Solicitor in 1998. In 2002, he was promoted to Assistant Solicitor General.
While working for the OSG, he was on Seconded Appointment as Commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) from July 1998 to February 2001. After 20 years with the OSG, Justice Gesmundo was appointed Associate Justice of the Sandiganbayan on October 15, 2005. He served as Chairperson of its 7th Division and as co-Chairperson of the anti- graft’s Committee on Rules. He was examiner in Remedial Law in the 2009 and 2015 Bar Examinations.
On August 14, 2017, he was appointed to the SC as its 178th magistrate.
As SC Associate Justice, he chaired the Technical Working Group for the Revision of the Law Student Practice Rule, and the
Organizing Committee for the 2019 Legal Education Summit. He is also Vice Chairperson of the Special Committee for the Rules of Procedure for Admiralty Cases, Special Committee for the Rules on Inspection (under the Philippine Competition Act), the Sub- Committee for the Revision of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, the Special Committee on the Rules of Procedure in Election Contests before the First Level Courts. He is also a Member of the SC Committees on Computerization and Library, on the Revision of the Rules of Court and the Special Committee on Speedy Trial.
Chief Justice Gesmundo was a member of the Corps of Professors and a Professorial Lecturer of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), particularly in remedial law. He was the Vice- Chairperson of the PHILJA’s Department of Remedial Law. He was the Examiner in Remedial Law in the 2009 and 2015 Bar examinations. He has taught various remedial law subjects at the Ateneo de Manila University, the Lyceum of the Philippines University, and the University of Perpetual Help, Las Piñas City.
Likewise, Justice Gesmundo was a member of the core committee of the National Conference for the Revision of the Rules of Civil Procedure, a joint project of the Supreme Court, the UP Law Center, the PHILJA, and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP). He is a member of the Committee on the Updating of the Benchbook for Philippine Trial Courts (Revised and Expanded) and of the Court of Tax Appeals 2004 Committee on Revision of the Rules of the Court of Tax Appeals. Before he started his public career, he worked as Research Analyst from 1977 to 1979, with Business Day Corporation, publisher of the business newspaper Business Day and Top 1000 Corporations of the Philippines wherein a few of his articles were published. He also worked as Market Research Officer at the Office of the Australian Trade Commissioner, Australian Embassy, Manila from 1979-1980, and continued as its Marketing Officer in 1980- 1985.
Source: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/17999/
Oh My Kwento!!!! 