People Vs Olivares
People Vs Olivares
OF
PHILIPPINES, Appellee, v. RAFAEL
OLIVAREZ,
JR.,
and
ARELLANO, appellants.
THE
DANILO
FACTS:
ISSUE:
HELD:
In this case, there were no eyewitnesses to the
killing and robbery and thus, no direct evidence
points to appellants criminal liability. The
prosecutions principal evidence against them
is based solely on the testimony of the police
officers who arrested, investigated and
subsequently took their confession. Such
evidence when juxtaposed with appellants
constitutional rights concerning arrests and the
taking of confessions leads to a conclusion that
they cannot he held liable for the offense
charged despite the inherent weakness of their
defenses of denial and alibi, not because they
are not guilty but because the evidence
adduced against them are inadmissible to
sustain a criminal conviction.
First, appellants were arrested without a
valid warrant of arrest and their arrest
cannot even be justified under any of the
recognized
exceptions
for
a
valid
warrantless arrest mentioned in Section 6,
(now Section 5) Rule 113 of the Rules on
Criminal Procedure, which prior to its
amendment in 1988 provides:
Arrest without warrant; when lawful. A peace
officer or private person may, without a
warrant, arrest a person:
(a) when the person to be arrested has
committed, is actually committing, or is about
to commit an offense in his presence;
(b) when the offense has in fact been
committed, and he has reasonable ground to
believe that the person to be arrested has
committed it;
(c) when the person to be arrested is a
prisoner who has escaped from a penal
establishment or place where he is serving
final judgment or temporarily confined while