G.R. No.

81567 October 3, 1991

IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION FOR HABEAS CORPUS OF ROBERTO UMIL,
ROLANDO DURAL and RENATO VILLANUEVA, MANOLITA O. UMIL and
NICANOR P. DURAL, FELICITAS V. SESE, petitioners,
vs.
FIDEL V. RAMOS, MAJ. GEN. RENATO DE VILLA, BRIG. GEN. RAMON
MONTANO, BRIG. GEN. ALEXANDER AGUIRRE, respondents.
Facts: This consolidated case of 8 petitions for habeas corpus assails the validity of the
arrests and searches made by the military on the petitioners. Petitioners in the
consolidated cases were arrested and searched without the proper warrants needed.
Petitioners assails the general rule that no peace officer or person has the power or
authority to arrest anyone without a warrant of arrest. Respondents assert that the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is not available to the petitioners as they have
been legally arrested and are detained by virtue of valid information filed in court against
them. Respondents were assailing that such arrest without warrants are found in Section
5, Rule 113 of the Rules of Court, which provides:
Sec. 5. Arrest without warrant; when lawful. A peace officer or a private person may,
without a warrant, arrest a person:
(a) When, in his presence, the person to be arrested has committed, is actually
committing, or is attempting to commit an offense;
(b) When an offense has in fact just been committed, and he has personal knowledge of
facts indicating that the person to be arrested has committed it; and
(c) When the person to be arrested is a prisoner who has escaped from a penal
establishment or place where he is serving final judgment or temporarily confined while
his case is pending, or has escaped while being transferred from one confinement to
another.
Issue: WON arrest and warrants were legal
Held: Yes, the Court looked into whether the questioned arrests and searches without
warrants were made in accordance with the law. In the cases at bar, giving emphasis on a
and b of the provision, that such arrest without warrant is justified when the person
arrested is caught in flagranti delicto- in the act of committing an offense: or when an
offense has just been committed and the person making the arrest has personal knowledge
of the facts indicating that the person arrested has committed it. It has been ruled that
"personal knowledge of facts," in arrests without warrant must be based upon probable
cause, which means an actual belief or reasonable grounds of suspicion.
The grounds of suspicion are reasonable when, in the absence of actual belief of the
arresting officers, the suspicion that the person to be arrested is probably guilty of
committing the offense, is based on actual facts, i.e., supported by circumstances
sufficiently strong in themselves to create the probable cause of guilt of the person to be
arrested. A reasonable suspicion therefore must be founded on probable cause, coupled
with good faith on the part of the peace officers

Gr no. 81567 (Umil v Ramos)

Regional Intelligence Operations Unit of the Capital Command (RIOU-CAPCOM)
received confidential information about a member of the NPA Sparrow Unit (liquidation
squad) being treated for a gunshot wound at the St. Agnes Hospital in Roosevelt Avenue,
Quezon City. Upon verification, it was found that the wounded person, who was listed in
the hospital records as Ronnie Javelon, is actually Rolando Dural, a member of the NPA
liquidation squad, responsible for the killing of two (2) CAPCOM. In view of this
verification, Rolando Dural was transferred to the Regional Medical Services of the
CAPCOM, for security reasons. While confined Rolando Dural was positively identified
by eyewitnesses as the gunman who went on top of the hood of the CAPCOM mobile
patrol car, and fired at the two (2) CAPCOM soldiers seated inside the car identified as
T/Sgt. Carlos Pabon and CIC Renato Manligot.
As a consequence of this positive identification, Rolando Dural was referred to the
Caloocan City Fiscal who conducted an inquest and thereafter filed with the Regional
Trial Court of Caloocan City an information charging Rolando Dural alias Ronnie
Javelon with the crime of "Double Murder with Assault Upon Agents of Persons in
Authority
The petition for habeas corpus, insofar as Umil and Villanueva are concerned, is now
moot and academic and is accordingly dismissed, since the writ of habeas corpus does
not lie in favor of an accused in a criminal case who has been released on bail. As
to Rolando Dural, it clearly appears that he was not arrested while in the act of shooting
the two (2) CAPCOM soldiers aforementioned. Nor was he arrested just after the
commission of the said offense for his arrest came a day after the said shooting incident.
Seemingly, his arrest without warrant is unjustified.
Issue: Whether or Not Rolando was lawfully arrested.
Held: Yes, Rolando Dural was arrested for being a member of the New Peoples Army
(NPA), an outlawed subversive organization. Subversion being a continuing offense, the
arrest of Rolando Dural without warrant is justified as it can be said that he was
committing an offense when arrested. The crimes of rebellion, subversion, conspiracy or
proposal to commit such crimes, and crimes or offenses committed in furtherance thereof
or in connection therewith constitute direct assaults against the State and are in the nature
of continuing crimes.