Criminal Law 2

Crimes against the fundamental laws of the State

Sayo v Chief of Police

GR No. L-2128. May 12, 1948

Facts:

Petitioners were charge of crime of robbery and arrested on April 2, 1948 and until April 7, 1948 when
the petition for habeas corpus was filed in Court to be 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 petitioners are being illegally restrained of their liberty

Ruling:

Yes.

The judicial authority refers in the 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”. (Section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution.)

Under the Constitution, no person may be deprived of his liberty, except by warrant of arrest or
commitment issued upon probable cause by a judge after examination of the complaint and his witness.
And the judicial authority to whom a person arrested by a public officer must be surrendered can not be
any other but a court or judge who alone is authorized to issue a warrant of commitment or provisional
detention of the person arrested pending the trial of the case against the latter. Without such
commitment, the detention of the person arrested for more than six hours would be illegal and in
violation of our Constitution.