Espuelas v. Provincial Warden of Bohol

OSCAR MENDOZ A ESPUELAS vs .
PROVINCIAL WARDEN OF BOHOL
SECOND DIVISION
[G.R. No. L-13223. May 30, 1960.]
OSCAR MENDOZA ESPUELAS, petitioner and appellee, vs. THE
PROVINCIAL WARDEN OF BOHOL, respondent and appellant.
Rolando Butalid G. for appellee.

Acting Solicitor General Guillermo E. Torres and Assistant Solicitor General
Florencio Villamor for appellant.
SYLLABUS
1.
PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES; PARDON OR PAROLE POWER TO
ORDER ARREST OR REINCARNATION. Under Section 64 (i) of the Revised
Administrative Code, the President is empowered "to authorize the arrest and
reincarnation of any such person, who in his judgment, shall fail to comply with
the condition, or conditions of his pardon, parole, or suspension of sentence."
2.
ID.; ID.; ACCEPTANCE OF CONDITIONAL PARDON CARRIES POWER
TO DETERMINE ITS VIOLATION. When a prisoner is conditionally pardoned it is
a generous exercise by the Chief Executive of his constitutional prerogative. The
acceptance thereof by the convict or prisoner carries with it the authority or
power of the executive to determine whether a condition or conditions of the
pardon has or have been violated.
DECISION
PADILLA, J :
p
The respondent appeals from a judgment of the Court of First Instance of

Bohol granting the petition for a writ of habeas corpus led by Oscar Mendoza
Espuelas and ordering his release from the custody of the respondent (special
proceedings No. 343).
The petitioner was charged in the Court of First Instance of Bohol with the
crime of inciting to sedition dened and penalized in article 142 of the Revised
Penal Code. After trial, on 22 September 1947 the Court found him guilty as
charged and sentenced to suer an indeterminate penalty from 2 years, 4
months and 1 day of prisin correccional as minimum to 5 years, 4 months and
20 days of prisin correccinal as maximum, to pay a ne of P1,000, to suer
subsidiary imprisonment not exceeding one-third of the principal penalty in case
of insolvency, and to pay the costs (criminal case No. 576). 1 He commenced to
serve his sentence, but before serving it to its full extent, on 17 March 1954,
upon recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Parole, the President of the
Philippines granted him conditional pardon by remitting the unexpired period of
his sentence and payment of the ne of P1,000, "on condition that he shall not
again violate any of the penal laws of the Philippines." On 25 March 1954 he
accepted the conditional pardon and was released from connement (Exhibit A).
Sometime thereafter, in the Justice of the Peace Court of Tagbilaran, Bohol, he
was charged with the crime of usurpation of authority or ocial functions
dened and penalized in article 177 of the Revised Penal Code and Republic Act
No. 10. After trial, on 29 August 1956 the Court found him guilty as charged and
sentenced to suer 4 months and 1 day of arresto mayor as minimum to 2 years,
1 month and 1 day of prisin correccional as maximum, the accessories of the
law, and to pay the costs. He appealed to the Court of First Instance of Bohol. On
5 July 1957 the Provincial Fiscal led a motion stating that one of the important
witnesses for the prosecution was in Manila and could not appear on the day of
the trial (5 July) and praying that the case be dismissed provisionally and the
bond led for the provisional release of the petitioner cancelled. On the same
day, 5 July 1957, the Court granted the motion and dismissed the case (Exhibit
B). On 8 November 1957, upon the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and
Parole, the President ordered his recommitment to prison to serve the unexpired
period of his sentence (Exhibit 1). On 9 November 1957 the petitioner was
arrested by members of the Philippine Constabulary in Tagbilaran, Bohol, and
conned in the provincial jail. On 20 November 1957 he led a petition for
habeas corpus in the Court of First Instance of Bohol. After hearing, on 22
November 1957, as stated at the beginning of this opinion, the Court granted his
petition. On 23 November 1957 the respondent has appealed. On the same day,
23 November, the petitioner led a bond for his provisional release pending
appeal.
The question to determine is whether the President may order the
reincarceration of the appellee, upon violation by the latter of the terms of the
conditional pardon granted to and accepted by him, to serve the unexpired term
or period of his sentence. The Solicitor General maintains that the President may
do so; whereas the appellee contends that he may not.
In the case of Tesoro vs. The Director of Prisons, 68 Phil., 154, quite similar
to the case under consideration, this Court held:
xxx xxx xxx
Appellant further contends that judicial pronouncement to the eect
that he has committed a crime is necessary before he can be properly
adjudged as having violated his conditional parole. Under condition No. 2 of
his parole, petitioner agreed that he "will not commit any other crime and will
conduct himself in an orderly manner." (Italics ours.) It was, therefore, the
mere commission not his conviction by court, of any other crime, that was
necessary in order that the petitioner may be deemed to have violated his
parole. And under section 64(i) of the Administrative Code the Chief
Executive is authorized to order "the arrest and reincarceration of any such
person who, in his judgment, shall fail to comply with the condition, or
conditions, of his pardon, parole or suspension of sentence." (Italics ours.)

xxx xxx xxx
Under section 64 (i) of the Revised Administrative Code, the President is

empowered "to authorize the arrest and reincarceration of any such person who,
in his judgment, shall fail to comply with the condition, or conditions, of his
pardon, parole, or suspension of sentence." The arrest and connement of the
appellee were ordered by the President upon the recommendation of the Board
of Pardons and Parole (Exhibit 1). In Sales vs. Director of Prisons, 87 Phil., 492;
48 O. Gaz., 576, and in Infante vs. Provincial Warden, 92 Phil., 310; 48 O.
Gaz., 5228, this Court held:
The Revised Penal Code, which was approved on December 8, 1930,
contains a repealing clause (article 367), which expressly repeals among
other Acts sections 102, 2670, 2671, and 2672 of the Administrative Code.
It does not repeal section 64(i) above quoted. On the contrary, Act No.
4103, the Indeterminate Sentence Law, which is subsequent to the Revised
Penal Code, in its section 9 expressly preserves the authority conferred
upon the President by section 64(i) of the Revised Administrative Code.
The legislative intent is clear, therefore, to preserve the power of the
President to authorize the arrest and reincarceration of any person who
violates the condition or conditions of his pardon notwithstanding the
enactment of article 159 of the Revised Penal Code. In this connection, we
observe that section 64(i) of the Administrative Code and article 159 of the
Revised Penal Code are but a reiteration of Acts Nos. 1524 and 1561, under
which a violator of a conditional pardon was liable to suer and to serve the
unexpired portion of the original sentence.
xxx xxx xxx
The condition of the pardon granted by the President to the petitioner is

"that he shall not again violate any of the penal laws of the Philippines. Should
this condition be violated, he will be proceeded against in the manner prescribed
by law."
Due process is not necessarily judicial. 1 The appellee had his day in court
and been aorded the opportunity to defend himself during his trial for the crime
of inciting to sedition, with which he was charged, that brought about or resulted
in his conviction, sentence and connement in the penitentiary. When he was
conditionally pardoned it was a generous exercise by the Chief Executive of his
constitutional prerogative. The acceptance thereof by the convict or prisoner
carries with it the authority or power of the Executive to determine whether a
condition or conditions of the pardon has or have been violated. To no other
department of the Government such power has been intrusted. In Tesoro vs.
Director of Prisons, supra, this Court held:
. . . where, as in the instant case, the determination of the violation of
the conditional parole rests exclusively in the sound judgment of the Chief
Executive, the courts will not interfere, by way of review, with any of his
findings. . . .
In Sales vs. Director of Prisons, supra, this Court further held:

xxx xxx xxx
It is contended by the petitioner that the power vested in the

President by section 64(i) of the Revised Administrative Code to authorize
the arrest and reincarceration of a violator of a conditional pardon is
repugnant to the due process of law granted by the Constitution (sec. 1,
Article III). A similar contention was advanced by the petitioner in the case of
Fuller vs. State of Alabama (45 L.R.A., 502), and was rejected by the
Supreme Court of that state, speaking thru Chief Justice McClellan, in the
following language:
But it is insisted that this statute, in so far as it undertakes to
authorize the governor to determine that the condition of the parole has not
been complied with and the summary arrest of the convict thereupon by the
direction of the governor, and his summary return or remandment to
servitude or imprisonment under the sentence, is violative of organic
guaranties of jury trial, that no warrant shall be issued to seize any person
without probable cause, supported by oath or armation, etc. This position
takes no account of the fact that the person being dealt with is a convict,
that he has already been seized in a constitutional way, been confronted by
his accusers and the witnesses against him, been tried by the jury of his
peers secured to him by the Constitution, and by them been convicted of
crime, and been sentenced to punishment therefor. In respect of that crime
and his attitude before the law after conviction of it, he is not a citizen, nor
entitled to invoke the organic safeguards which hedge about the citizen's
liberty, but he is a felon, at large by the mere grace of the executive, and not
entitled to be at large after he has breached the conditions upon which that
grace was extended to him. In the absence of this statute, a convict who
had broken the conditions of a pardon would, if there were no question of
his identity or the fact of breach of the conditions, be subject to summary
arrest, and remandment, as matter of course, to imprisonment, under the
original sentence by the court of his conviction, or any court of co-ordinate
or superior jurisdiction, a purely formal proceeding. . . But the statute
supervenes to avoid the necessity for any action by the courts in the
premises. The executive clemency under it is extended upon the conditions
named in it, and he accepts it upon those conditions. One of these is that
the governor may withdraw his grace in a certain contingency, and another
is that the governor shall himself determine when that contingency has
arisen. It is as if the convict, with full competency to bind himself in the
premises had expressly contracted and agreed that, whenever the governor
should conclude that he had violated the condition of his parole, an
executive order for his arrest and remandment to prison should at once
issue, and be conclusive upon him. . . .
The judgment appealed from is reversed, with costs against the appellee.
Bengzon, Montemayor, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Barrera and Gutirrez

David, JJ ., concur.
Separate Opinions
PARAS, C. J.:
I dissent for the same reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in cases of
Sales vs. Dir. of Prisons and Infante vs. Dir. of Prisons cited in the majority
opinion.
Footnotes
1.
He appealed to the Court of Appeals. On 23 April 1949 the appellate court

armed the judgment. (C.A.G.R. No. 1938-R.) He led in this Court a petition for
certiorari under Rule 46 to review the judgment of the Court of Appeals. On 17
December 1951, this Court armed the judgment of the Court of Appeals. (90
Phil., 524.)
1.
The Insular Government vs. Ling Su Fan, 15 Phil., 58; Forbes vs. Tiaco, 16 Phil.,
534; Tan Te vs. Bell, 27 Phil., 354; De Leon vs. Director of Prisons, 31 Phil., 60;
U.S. vs. Gomez Jesus, 31 Phil., 218; U.S. vs. Ignacio, 33 Phil., 202; Cornejo vs.
Gabriel, 41 Phil., 188; and People vs. Ponce de Leon, 56 Phil., 386.

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OSCAR MENDOZ A ESPUELAS vs .

PROVINCIAL WARDEN OF BOHOL

Rolando Butalid G. for appellee.

The respondent appeals from a judgment of the Court of First Instance of

conditions, of his pardon, parole or suspension of sentence." (Italics ours.)

Under section 64 (i) of the Revised Administrative Code, the President is

The condition of the pardon granted by the President to the petitioner is

In Sales vs. Director of Prisons, supra, this Court further held:

It is contended by the petitioner that the power vested in the

Bengzon, Montemayor, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Barrera and Gutirrez

He appealed to the Court of Appeals. On 23 April 1949 the appellate court

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