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THE
PEOPLE OF THE
PHILIPPINES,
G.
R.
No. 48974
March
20, 1944
-versus-
BANAAG LINATOC AND GERARDO LINATOC, Defendants-Appellees. OZAETA,
J :
Defendants-appellees were
accused by the Chief of Police of Calamba, Laguna, of "slight physical
injuries with threats to kill" in a Complaint filed on November 11,
1942,
in the justice of the peace court of said municipality, which reads as
follows:
"That in the commission of the said crime there is present the aggravating circumstance of superior strength due to sex. Contrary to law." Upon said Complaint, the
accused were arraigned and pleaded not guilty. They were, however,
found
guilty by the Justice of the Peace Court of slight physical injuries
with
the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength and
sentenced
to twenty-one days of arresto menor and to indemnify the offended party
in the sum of P13. From that sentence, they appealed to the Court of
First
Instance.
The Court of First Instance, upon motion of counsel for the accused, dismissed the case without prejudice, on the ground that the complaint charged the complex crimes of slight physical injuries with grave threats, and as the penalty for the more serious crime was beyond the competence of the justice of the peace court, the Court of First Instance did not acquire appellate jurisdiction. From the order of dismissal the fiscal appealed to this Court. The appeal in Our opinion is meritorious. The Complaint above transcribed charges two different crimes - slight physical injuries and threats to kill. The Justice of the Peace Court undeniably had jurisdiction to try and decide the light offense of slight physical injuries. Assuming, without deciding, that the complaint sufficiently charges also the less grave offense of "grave threats" as penalized in Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code, the Justice of the Peace had to ignore it because it was beyond his jurisdiction, and any pronouncement he might have made with regard thereto would have been coram non judice. The complaint did not charge complex crimes within the purview of Article 48 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Act No. 4000, which reads as follows:
In the first place, there
are no two "grave or less grave felonies" involved in the complaint,
slight
physical injuries being a light offense. In the second place, the act
that
caused slight physical injuries did not constitute also the crime of
grave
threats, nor was the one a necessary means for committing the other.
The Court of First Instance, therefore, should try and decide the appeal involving slight physical injuries and ignore the charge of "threats to kill" until a proper separate Information therefor is presented, if desired. The Order is reversed and the case is remanded to the Court of origin for further proceedings, with costs against the appellees. Yulo, C.J., Moran, and Horrilleno, JJ., concur. Paras, J. I concur in the result. See U. S., vs. Sevilla, 1 Phil., 143 and U. S. vs. Paguirigan, 14 Phil., 450. BOCOBO,
J.,
Concurring:
I
concur in the result.
I deem it advisable to state that the more serious offense, threats to
kill, should have been given preference by the Justice of the Peace by
immediately making a preliminary investigation thereof, with a view to
forwarding the case to the Court of First Instance if good and
justifiable
grounds for such action were found by the Justice of the Peace. It was
in the public interest that the offense of threats to kill should have
been prosecuted and tried before the offense of slight physical
injuries,
because the former involved a more serious menace to public order.
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