The DOJ Manual for Prosecutors defnes inquest as an

informal and summary investigation conducted by the public

prosecutor in criminal cases involving persons arrested and
detained without the beneft of a warrant of arrest issued by
the court for the purpose of determining whether or not such
persons should remain under custody and correspondingly be
charged in court.
Under the Rules of Court, Rule 113, Section 5, a warrantless
arrest is lawful under three circumstances:
1. When, in the presence of the policeman, the person to be
arrested has committed, is actually committing, or is
attempting to commit an ofense;
2. When an ofense has just been committed, and he has
probable cause to believe, based on personal knowledge of
facts or circumstances, that the person to be arrested has
committed it; and
3. When the person to be arrested is a prisoner who has
escaped from a penal establishment.
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Objections to the warrant of arrest must be made before the
accused enters his plea (People vs. Codilla 224 SCRA 104;
People vs. Robles G.R. No. 101335, June 8, 2000). Failure to
do so constitutes a waiver of his right against unlawful
restraint of liberty (People vs. Penaforida, G.R. No. 130550,
September 2, 1999). Indeed, even assuming that their arrest
was illegal, their act of entering a plea during their
arraignment constituted s waiver by accused of their right to
question the validity of the arrest (People vs. Cachola G.R. Nos.
148712-15, Jan. 21, 2004)
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When an ofense has just been committed, and he has
probable cause to believe, based on personal knowledge of
facts or circumstances, that the person to be arrested has
committed it.
Under this paragraph, two stringent requirements must be
complied with namely
1.an ofense had just been committed, and
2.the person making the arrest has probable cause to
believe, based on his personal knowledge of facts or other
circumstances, that the person to be arrested had
committed it.
Hence, there must be a large measure of immediacy between
the time the ofense is committed and the time of the arrest,
and there was an appreciable lapse of time between the arrest
and the commission of the crime, a warrant of arrest must be
secured. Aside from the sense of immediacy, it is also
mandatory that the person making the arrest has personal
knowledge of certain facts indicating that the person to be
taken into custody has committed the crime.