PONSICA VS IGNALAGA

G.R. No. 72301               July 31, 1987

FACTS:

The chief issue raised by the petitioners in this case is whether or not Section 143 of the Local Government Code1granting power to the municipal mayor to conduct preliminary investigations and order the arrest of the accused, was repealed by the 1985 Rules on Criminal Procedure promulgated by this Court; and is, in addition, unconstitutional as vesting the power to conduct preliminary investigations in an official who cannot be deemed a "neutral and detached magistrate" within the contemplation of Section 3, Article IV of the 1973 Constitution. The issue is hereby resolved adversely to the petitioners, with the stressed qualification that the mayor's power to order arrest ceased to exist as of February 2, 1987 when the new Constitution was ratified by the Filipino people, and that, in any event, the investigation actually conducted by respondent mayor in the case at bar was fatally defective.

RULING: 

While it is true that the mayors do "exercise general supervision over units and elements of the INP stationed or assigned in their respective jurisdictions," they are not themselves directly involved in police work and cannot in any sense be described, as the petitioners do, as being deeply involved in law enforcement functions. And even if that "deep involvement" be conceded, it does not follow that this would necessarily preclude their assuming "the cold neutrality of an impartial judge" in conducting preliminary investigations of persons suspected of crimes.

As the law now stands, the mayor may no longer conduct preliminary investigation, the authority to do so being limited under Section 2, Rule 1 1 2 of the Rules of Court to (1) provincial or city fiscals and their assistants; (2) judges of the Municipal Trial Courts and Municipal Circuit Trial Courts; (3) national and regional state prosecutors; and (d) such other officers as may be authorized by law. But only "the judge" may issue search and arrest warrants after due determination of probable cause.