G.R. No.

L-2128             May 12, 1948

MELENCIO SAYO and JOAQUIN MOSTERO, petitioners,

vs.
THE CHIEF OF POLICE and THE OFFICER IN CHARGE OF MUNICIPAL JAIL, BOTH OF CITY OF
MANILA, respondents.

FACTS:
Upon complaint of Bernardino Malinao, charging the petitioners with having committed the crime of
robbery, Benjamin Dumlao, a policeman of the City of Manila, arrested the petitioners on April 2, 1948,
and presented a complaint against them with the fiscal's office of Manila. 

Until April 7, 1948, when the petition for habeas corpus filed with this Court was heard, the petitioners
were still detained or under arrest, and the city fiscal had not yet released or filed against them an
information with the proper courts of justice.

ISSUE:

 Whether the city fiscal of manila a judicial authority within the meaning of the provisions of article 125
of the Revised Penal Code?

RULING:

No. the words "judicial authority", as used in said article, mean the courts of justices or judges of said
courts vested with judicial power to order the temporary detention or confinement of a person charged
with having committed a public offense, that is, "the Supreme Court and such inferior courts as may be
established by law".

In view of all the foregoing, without making any pronouncement as to the responsibility of the officers
who intervened in the detention of the petitioners, for the policeman Dumlao may have acted in good
faith, in the absence of a clear cut ruling on the matter in believing that he had complied with the
mandate of article 125 by delivering the petitioners within six hours to the office of the city fiscal, and
the latter might have ignored the fact that the petitioners were being actually detained when the said
policeman filed a complaint against them with the city fiscal, we hold that the petitioners are being
illegally restrained of their liberty, and their release is hereby ordered unless they are now detained by
virtue of a process issued by a competent court of justice. So ordered.