Philippine Supreme Court Jurisprudence

1. JUDICIARY ACT; ORIGINAL AND CONCURRENT JURISDICTION OF MUNICIPAL COURT. — As the law stands at present, justices of the peace and judges of municipal courts of chartered cities possess original jurisdiction over all offenses, except violation of election laws, in which the penalty provided by law is imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine of not more than P3,000, or both such fine and imprisonment (Sec, 87[c], last paragraph, as amended by RA 3828). Since the original jurisdiction as conferred in the CFI by the Judiciary Act of 1948 (RA 296) covers criminal cases where the penalty provided by law is imprisonment for more than six months or a fine of more than P200, municipal courts of chartered cities as well as CFI possess concurrent original jurisdiction over all criminal offenses, except violations of election laws, where the penalty provided by law is more than six months or a fine of more than P200, but not exceeding six years of imprisonment or a fine of not more than P6,000, or both such fine and imprisonment.

2. ID.; ID.; JUDICIARY ACT PROVISIONS HARMONlZED. — The provisions of the Judiciary Act conferring the respective jurisdictions in criminal cases on courts of first instance and municipal courts, must be considered together. The fact that the jurisdiction of the municipal or city courts was enlarged in virtue of the amendment of section 87(c), cannot be taken as a repeal or withdrawal of the jurisdiction conferred on the CFI under section 44(f) which has remained unaltered notwithstanding the various amendments received by sec. 87, thereby indicating the intention of the legislators to retain the original jurisdiction of the CFI in certain cases. (Esperat v. Avila, L-25922, June 20, 1967).

3. ID.; ID.; DOCTRINE IN ESPERAT-AVILA CASE REITERATED. — The exclusive original jurisdiction of the justices of the peace and municipal courts is confined only to cases where the prescribed penalty is imprisonment for six months or less, or a fine of P200 or less, whereas, the exclusive original jurisdiction of the CFI covers cases where the penalty is incarceration for more than three years (or six years in the case of city courts and municipal courts in provincial capitals), or a fine for more than P3,000 (or P6,000 in proper cases), or both such imprisonment and fine. Between these exclusive jurisdictions lies a zone where the jurisdiction is concurrent (Esperat v. Avila, supra).

4. ID.; ID.; APPEALS IN CRIMINAL CASES FROM MUNICIPAL COURTS. — Where the municipal court has taken cognizance of a criminal case in its concurrent jurisdiction with the CFI, appeal must be taken direct to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court; and where the court of first instance has taken cognizance of such appeal in its appellate jurisdiction and has refused to elevate the case to the Court of Appeals, said court of first instance acted without jurisdiction and may be prohibited from further entertaining the case.