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THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES,

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G.R. No. L-14595 May 31, 1960
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, petitioner,
vs.
HONORABLE GREGORIO MONTEJO, Judge, Court of First Instance, Zamboanga City and Basilan City, MAYOR LEROY S.
BROWN, DETECTIVE JOAQUIN R. POLLISCO, PATROLMAN GRACIANO LACERNA alias DODONG, PATROLMAN MOHAMAD
HASBI, SPECIAL POLICEMAN DIONISIO DINGLASA, SPECIAL POLICEMAN HADJARATIL, SPECIAL POLICEMAN ALO, and JOHN
DOES, respondents.
Acting City Atty. Perfecto B. Querubin for petitioner.
Hon. Gregorio Montejo in his own behalf.
C. A. S. Sipin, Jr. for the other respondents.
CONCEPCION, J.:
This is a special civil action for certiorari , with mandamus and preliminary injunction, against Hon. Gregorio Montejo, as Judge
of the Court of First Instance of the cities of Zamboanga and Basilan, and the defendants in Criminal Case No. 672 of said court.
In the petition herein, which was filed by the prosecution in said criminal case, it is prayed that, pending the final determination
thereof, a writ of preliminary injunction issue, enjoining respondent Judge from proceeding with the trial of said case; that,
after due hearing, the rulings of respondent Judge, rejecting some evidence for the prosecution therein and not permitting the
same to propound certain questions, be set aside; that said respondent Judge be ordered to admit the aforementioned
evidence and permit said questions; and that Senator Roseller Lim be declared, contrary to another ruling made by respondent
Judge, disqualified by the Constitution from appearing as counsel for the accused in said criminal case. Soon, after the filing of
the petition, we issued the writ of preliminary injunction prayed for, without bond.
In their respective answers, respondents alleged, in substance, that the ruling complained of are in conformity with law.
Respondents Leroy S. Brown, Mayor of Basilan City, Detective Joaquin R. Pollisco, Patrolman Graciano Lacerna (alias Dodong)
and Mohamad Hasbi, Special Policemen Dionisio Dinglasa, Moro Yakan, Hadjaratil, Moro Alo and several John Does, are
charged, in said Criminal Case No. 672, with murder. It is alleged in the information therein that, during May and June, 1958, in
the sitio of Tipo-Tipo, district of Lamitan, City of Basilan, Mayor Brown "organized groups of police patrol and civilian
commandoes", consisting of regular and special policemen, whom he "armed with pistols and high power guns", and then
"established a camp", called sub-police headquarters hereinafter referred to as sub-station at Tipo-Tipo, Lamitan, which
was placed under his command, orders, direct supervision and control, and in which his codefendants were stationed; that the
criminal complaints were entertained in said sub-station, in which defendant Pollisco acted as investigating officer and
exercised authority to order the apprehension of persons and their detention in the camp, for days or weeks, without due
process of law and without bringing them to the proper court; that, on or about June 4, and 5, 1958; one Yokan Awalin Tebag
was arrested by order of Mayor Brown, without any warrant or complaint filed in court, and then brought to, and detained in,
the aforementioned sub-station; that while on the way thereto, said Awalin Tebag was maltreated, pursuant to instructions of
Mayor Brown, concurred in by Pollisco, to the effect that Tebag be mauled until such time as he shall surrender his gun; that,
once in the sub-station, Tebag, whose hands were securely tied, was subjected, by defendants Lacerna, Hasbi, Pollisco,
Dinglasa, and other special policemen, to further and more severe torture, in consequence of which Tebag died; that, in order
to simulate that Tebag had been killed by peace officers in the course of an encounter between the latter and a band of armed
bandits of which he formed part, the body of Tebag was brought, early the next morning, to a nearby isolated field, where
defendant Hasbi fired twice at said dead body from behind, and then an old Japanese rifle, supplied by Mayor Brown, was
placed beside said body; and that, in furtherance of the aforementioned simulation, a report of said imaginary encounter,
mentioning Tebag as the only member of a band of armed bandits whose identity was known, was submitted and respondent
Hasbi caused one of his companions to shoot him on the left arm.
During the trial of said criminal case, respondent Judge rejected the following evidence for the prosecution therein:
1. Exhibit A A report of Capt. F. G. Sarrosa, Commanding Officer of the PC Detachment in Basilan City, who investigated the
case, showing that on June 5, 1958, he and Lt. Clemente Antonio, PAF, found nine (9) detainees in the Tipo-Tipo sub-station.
This was part of the chain of evidence of the prosecution to prove that persons used to be detained in the aforementioned sub-
station by the main respondents herein, without either a warrant of arrest or a complaint filed in court.

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2. Exhibit C Letter of Atty. Doroteo de Guzman to the officer in charge of the sub-station, dated June 4, 1958, inquiring as to
the whereabouts of Awalin Tebag, who, according to the letter, was arrested in his house, by policemen, on June 4, 1958. Capt.
Sarrosa took possession of this letter in the course of his aforementioned investigation.
3. Exhibits G, G-1, G-2 and G-3 These are the transcript of the testimony of Tebag's mother, before the City Fiscal of Basilan
City, when she asked an autopsy of the body of her son.
4. Exhibits J to V Consisting of the following, namely: a sketch of the sub-station; pictures of several huts therein, indicating
their relative positions and distances; a picture depicting how the body of Tebag was taken from a camarin in the sub-station; a
picture showing how Patrolman Hasbiwas shot by a companion, at this request; and a picture, Exhibit T, demonstrating how
Mayor Brown allegedly gave the Japanese rifle, Exhibit Y, to Hasbi, to be planted beside Tebag's body.
Although referred to by Yakan Carnain, Arit, Lianson, Kona Amenola, and Asidin, in the course of their testimony as witnesses
for the prosecution, these exhibits were not admitted in evidence, which were presented to show how they were able to
observe the movements in the sub-station, the same being quite small.
5. Exhibits X (a "barong") and X-1 (a scabbard) Amenola said that these effects were given to him by Mayor Brown in the
latter's office, and that he then saw therein the Japanese rifle, Exhibit Y, which was later placed beside the dead body of Awalin
Tebag.
6. Exhibits DD, DD-1, FF, JJ, KK and LL These show that on April 28, 1958, Yakan Kallapattoh and Fernandez (Pilnandiz)
executed affidavits admitting participation in a given robbery; that an information therefor (Exh. KK) was filed against them on
May 2, 1958, with the municipal court of Basilan City (Criminal Case No. 1774); and that, in compliance with warrants for their
arrest then issued, they were apprehended and detained in the sub-station, thus corroborating the testimony of prosecution
witness Yakans Amenola, Carnain Asidin and Arip to the effect that Kallapattoh and Fernandez (Pilnandiz) were together with
them, in the aforementioned sub-station, when Tebag was maltreated and died therein, on June 4, 1958, as well as confirming
Pollisco's statement, Exhibit TT-18, before the City Fiscal of Basilan city, on June 21, 1958, admitting that Fernandez was in the
sub-station on June 5, 1958, on account of the warrant of arrest adverted to. Through the exhibits in question the prosecution
sought, also, to bolster up its theory that Kallapattoh and Fernandez disappeared from the sub-station after Tebag's death,
because the main respondents herein illegally released them to prevent them from revealing the circumstances surrounding
said event.
7. Exhibits II, II-1, and MM These are sketches of a human body and pictures purporting to show the points of entrance, as
well as of exit, of two (2) bullets wounds found on the body of Tebag. Respondent Judge rejected these exhibits and did not
allow Dr. Rosalino Reyes, Chief of the Medico-Legal Section of the National Bureau of Investigation, to answer questions asked
by the prosecution, to establish that the trajectories of said bullets wounds were parallel to each other, which, the prosecution
claims, would have been impossible had Tebag been alive when he sustained said wounds..
8. Respondent Judge sustained, also, the objections to certain questions propounded to said Dr. Reyes, to show that the injuries
sustained by Tebag in the large intestines must have been inflicted when Tebag was dead already, and did not allow Dr. Reyes
to draw lines on Exhibits II and MM, indicating the connection between the points of entrance and those of exit of said wounds.
9. Exhibits Z, Z-1, Z-2 These are records of the office of the City Fiscal of Basilan City showing that the Japanese rifle, Exhibit Y,
two rounds of ammunitions and one empty shell were received by said Office from the Police Department of Basilan City on
June 17, 1958. These exhibits were presented to show that said rifle tallies with the description thereof given by prosecution
witness Kona Amenola, in his affidavit, dated June 14, 1958, when said weapon was still in the possession of respondent
Pollisco, and hence, to establish Amenola's veracity.
Likewise, the following rebuttal evidence for the prosecution were rejected by respondent Judge, viz:
1. Exhibits OO to OO-8 These are daily records of events of the police department, Lamitan District, Basilan City, including the
Tipo-Tipo region. They do not mention the killing therein, by the police patrol, of any outlaw on June 5, 1958, thereby
contradicting the reports (Exhs. 12 and 12-A) of respondent Pollisco and Hasbi about it. Respondent Judge did not allow the
record clerk of the City Fiscal's office to identify said exhibits, upon the ground that it was too late to present him although
when the exhibits were marked by the prosecution it reserved the right to identify them as part of official records.

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G.R. No. L-14595             May 31, 1960 THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, petitioner, vs. HONORABLE GREGORIO MONTEJO, Judge, Court of First Instance, Zamboanga City and Basilan City, MAYOR LEROY S. BROWN, DETECTIVE JOAQUIN R. POLLISCO, PATROLMAN GRACIANO LACERNA alias DODONG, PATROLMAN MOHAMAD HASBI, SPECIAL POLICEMAN DIONISIO DINGLASA, SPECIAL POLICEMAN HADJARATIL, SPECIAL POLICEMAN ALO, and JOHN DOES, respondents. Acting City Atty. Perfecto B. Querubin for petitioner. Hon. Gregorio Montejo in his own behalf. C. A. S. Sipin, Jr. for the other respondents. CONCEPCION, J.: This is a special civil action for certiorari , with mandamus and preliminary injunction, against Hon. Gregorio Montejo, as Judge of the Court of First Instance of the cities of Zamboanga and Basilan, and the defendants in Criminal Case No. 672 of said court. In the petition herein, which was filed by the prosecution in said criminal case, it is prayed that, pending the final determination thereof, a writ of preliminary injunction issue, enjoining respondent Judge from proceeding with the trial of said case; that, after due hearing, the rulings of respondent Judge, rejecting some evidence for the prosecution therein and not permitting the same to propound certain questions, be set aside; that said respondent Judge be ordered to admit the aforementioned evidence and permit said questions; and that Senator Roseller Lim be declared, contrary to another ruling made by respondent Judge, disqualified by t ...
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