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SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED VOLUME 065

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Case Title:
THE PEOPLE OP THE PHILIPPINES,
plaintiff-appellee, vs. CAMILO
PILOTIN, VINCENT CRISOLOGO, VOL. 65, JULY 31, 1975 635
ISIDRO PUGAL and ERNING ABAÑO, People vs. Pilotin
defendants-appellants.
Citation: 65 SCRA 635 *

More... Nos. L-35377-78. July 31, 1975.

THE PEOPLE OP THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-

Search Result appellee, vs. CAMILO PILOTIN, VINCENT
CRISOLOGO, ISIDRO PUGAL and ERNING ABAÑO,
defendants-appellants.

Constitutional law; Supreme Court; Power to order a

change of venue or place of trial to avoid a miscarriage of
justice; Case at bar.·Section 5(4), Article X of the
Constitution expressly empowers the Supreme Court to
„order a change of venue or place of trial to avoid a
miscarriage of justice‰. In the case at bar, what is involved is
not merely a miscarriage of justice but the personal safety of
the accused. It would be absurd to compel him to undergo
trial in a place where his life would be imperilled.
Same; Same; Same; Hostile sentiment against the
accused at place of trial a justification for transfer of venue.
·Present hostile sentiment against the accused at the place
of trial is a justification for transfer of venue.
Same; Same; Same; Change of venue involves change of
place of hearing and transfer of expediente of case; Case at
bar.·The change of venue involves not merely the change of
the place of hearing but also the transfer of the expediente of
Criminal Case No. 3949 to another court. According to the
accusedÊs motion, the alleged evidence against him is in the
custody of the authorities at Camp Crame, Quezon City. The
transfer of Criminal Case No. 3949 to the City Court of
Quezon City and the holding of the trial at Camp Crame
appear to be the most convenient arrangement.

_______________

* SECOND DIVISION.

636

636 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

People vs. Pilotin

RESOLUTION

AQUINO, J.:

Vincent Crisologo through counsel filed a verified

motion praying for the transfer to the New Bilibid
Prisons or, alternatively, to Camps Crame, Aguinaldo
or Olivas, of the place of trial of Criminal Case No.
3949 of the municipal court of Vigan, Ilocos Sur,

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 wherein he, as sole defendant, is charged with illegal
possession of firearms and ammunitions.
As justificatory ground, he alleged that his life
would be in jeopardy if he were to be confined in the
Vigan municipal jail during the trial because there are
many political enemies of the Crisologo family in that
vicinity; some of the adherents of the Crisologos had in
fact been murdered in Ilocos Sur, and his father,
Congressman Floro Crisologo, was shot to death while
hearing mass at the Vigan cathedral.
Bluntly, he affirmed that inside that jail he would
be a sitting duck for a gunwielder or grenade-thrower
who wants to assassinate him. He could even be
lynched or shot to death on the specious pretext that
he was trying to escape. Asked to comment on the
motion, the Provincial Fiscal of Ilocos Sur signified his
conformity to the transfer of the venue of the trial to
the New Bilibid Prisons.
Section 5(4), Article X of the Constitution expressly
empowers this Court to „order a change of venue or
place of trial to avoid a miscarriage of justice‰. Here,
what is involved is not merely a miscarriage of justice
but the personal safety of movant Crisologo, the
accused. It would be absurd to compel him to undergo
trial in a place where his life would be imperilled.
Present hostile sentiment against the accused at the
place of trial is a justification for transfer of venue (See
State vs. Siers 136 S. E. 503, 103, W. Va. 30; 22 C.J.S.
310).
We find CrisologoÊs motion to be meritorious. The
change of venue involves not merely the change of the
place of hearing but also the transfer of the expediente
of Criminal Case No. 3949 to another court. According
to CrisologoÊs motion, the alleged evidence against him
is in the custody of the authorities at Camp Crame,
Quezon City. The transfer of Criminal Case No. 3949
to the City Court of Quezon City and the holding of the
trial at Camp Crame appear to be the most convenient
637

VOL. 65, JULY 31, 1975 637

People vs. Pilotin

arrangement.
WHEREFORE, the municipal court of Vigan is
directed to transfer the record of Criminal Case No.
3949 to the City Court of Quezon City where it should
be re-docketed and raffled to any Judge thereof. The
case may be tried at Camp Crame. The usual
precautions and security measures should be adopted
in bringing defendant Crisologo to Camp Crame on the
occasion of the hearing.
SO ORDERED.

Makalintal, C.J., Fernando, Barredo and

Concepcion Jr., JJ., concur.
Antonio, J., did not take part.

Notes.·Power of the Supreme Court to transfer

trial of cases.·The Constitution has vested the
Judicial Power in the Supreme Court and such inferior
courts as may be established by law (Article VIII,
Section 13, [1937 Constitution]), and such judicial
power connotes certain incidental and inherent
attributes reasonably necessary for an effective

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 administration of justice. The courts „can by
appropriate means do all things necessary to preserve
and maintain every quality needful to make the
judiciary an effective institution of government.‰ One
of these incidental and inherent powers of courts is
that of transferring the trial of cases from one court to
another of equal rank in a neighboring site, whenever
the imperative of securing a fair and impartial trial, or
of preventing a miscarriage of justice, so demands.
This authority was early recognized in England as
inhering in the courts of justice even prior to the
eighteenth century. x x x This power to transer trial of
criminal cases is furtherance of justice, exercised
through writs of certiorari, has according to the weight
of authority, passed to the State Supreme Courts of the
American Union. x x x That such inherent powers are
likewise possessed by the Philippine courts admits of
no doubt, because they were organized on the
American pattern with the enactment of the first
judicial organic law, Act 136, on 11 June 1901, by the
Philippine Commission, then composed by a majority
of able American lawyers, fully familiar with the
institutions and traditions of the common law. (People
vs. Gutierrez, et al., L-32282-83, November 26, 1970,
36 SCRA 172).

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638

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