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Esteban C. Manuel vs. Ernani Cruz Pano 172 SCRA 225

ESTEBAN C. MANUEL, petitioner, vs. THE HON. ERNANI CRUZ PANO as Judge of the Court of First Instance of Rizal, Br. XVIII, Q.C., ANTONIO A. BARANDA, EDSEL LABAYEN and ROLANDO GATMAITAN, respondents.

G.R. No. L-46079 | 1989-05-17

D E C I S I O N


CRUZ, J.:

One wonders why the respondent judge did not immediately grant the petitioner's motion to quash the information on the obvious and valid ground that the facts charged did not constitute an offense. This decisive act could have avoided the needless molestation of one more citizen and cleared the clogged dockets of this Court of still another of the persecutions big and small so rampant during those days of martial law. More importantly, it would have affirmed once again the freedom of expression guaranteed in the Bill of Rights to which every one was entitled even under the 1973 Constitution.

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