G.R. No. 152644 Case Digest

G.R. No. 152644, February 10, 2006

John Eric Loney, Steven Paul Reid and Pedro Hernandez

vs People of the Philippines

Ponente: Carpio

Facts:

Loney, Reid and Hernandez are the President, CEO and Senior Manager and Resident Manager for Mining Operation of Marcopper in Marinduque. Marcopper built concrete plug at the tunnels discharging tons of tailing into Boac and Makalupnit rivers.

DOJ then filed separate charges against the petitioners in MTC Marinduque for violation of Art. 19 of PD 1067 or the Water code of the Philippines, Section 8 of PD 984 or the National Pollution Control Decree, Section 108 of RA 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 2005 and Art. 365 of the RPC for reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property.

Petitioners moved to quash the information saying that the (1) information was duplicitous for it charges more than one offense for a single act, (2) that Loney and Reid were not yet officers when this incident took place and (3) that the informations contain allegations which constitute legal excuse or justification.

MTC: partially granted the quashing of the informations for violation of PD 1067 and PD 984 but maintained violation of RA 7942 and RPC. MTC then  issued a consolidated order in so far as the offense against RPC. With such, petitioners filed a petition for certiorari with RTC-Marinduque assailing the Consolidated Order.

RTC: granted appeal but denied the petition for certiorari. Consolidated Order was affirmed and ordered the reinstatement of the informations pertaining to the violation of PD 1967 and PD 984. Petitioners filed a petition for certiorari with the CA alleging grave abuse of discretion reiterating the defense that the informations were made out from a single act.

CA: affirmed RTC

Issues: Whether all the charges filed against petitioners except one should be quashed for duplicity of charges and only the charge for Reckless Imprudence Resulting in Damage to Property should stand.

Ruling:

No duplicity. Duplicity of charges means a single complaint or information charges more than on offense. The filing of several charges is proper. A single act or incident might offend two or more entirely distinct and unrelated provisions of law thus justifying the prosecution for more than one offense. The only limit is double jeopardy.