G.R. No. 237845 - BDO LIFE ASSURANCE, INC. (FORMERLY GENERALI PILIPINAS LIFE ASSURANCE CO., INC.), V. ATTY. EMERSON U. PALAD.

Ruling

WHEREFORE, premises considered, it is hereby recommended that Raynel Thomas Alvarado y Villas a.k.a. Carl Raynel Lao Andrada and Genevie Gragas y Bartolome a.k.a. Melanie Andrada, be indicted for violation of THE REVISED PENAL CODE, art. 315, par. 2(a) and the attached Information be approved for filing in court. Further, it is recommended that Genevie Gragas y Bartolome be indicted as conspirator of Raynel Thomas y Villas in the case of attempted estafa thru falsification of public documents. The complaint against Atty. Emerson U. Palad, Vincent Paul L. Amposta, Teodoro M. Olguera, Cynthia O. Taniegra, Armel M. Santos, and Imelda B. Neo is recommended to be, as upon approval, it is hereby dismissed for insufficiency of evidence. [22] Petitioner, thus, filed a Petition for Review with the Department of Justice, which denied the same through a Resolution dated May 16, 2015. [23] The Proceedings with the Appellate Court On appeal with the CA, the petitioner alleged that the Department of Justice committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack and/or excess of jurisdiction in issuing the assailed Resolution, which dismissed its petition for review of the Resolution of the City Prosecutor of Makati insofar as it dismissed the complaint for attempted estafa through the falsification of public documents against Santos, Olguera, Amposta, and Palad. [24] Initially, the CA found merit in the appeal, and reversed the Final Resolution. In its Decision dated May 12, 2017, the CA ruled that the Prosecutor General committed grave abuse of discretion for having affirmed a stricter standard to determine the existence of probable cause, [25] the standard being "clear and convincing evidence" and proof beyond reasonable doubt. Citing jurisprudence as basis, [26] the CA emphasized that the test in finding probable cause is reasonableness and believability, i.e ., that an average person can engender a well-founded belief that the accused has committed the crime alleged, and in affirming a different standard, the Prosecutor General has not acted in accordance with law, had acted arbitrarily, and had, thus, acted with grave abuse of discretion. The CA found upon its own independent review that there was probable cause to charge with the same felony as that of Alvarado and Gragas and as conspirators of the same, Amposta, Olguera, Taniegra, and herein respondent Palad. The dispositive portion of the CA's initial Decision reads, to wit: WHEREFORE , premises considered, the instant Petition for Certiorari is GRANTED . The assailed Resolution dated 16 May 2015 of the Prosecutor General is hereby declared NULL and VOID for having been issued with grave abuse of discretion. Pursuant to this Decision, the Final Resolution of the assistant city prosecutor of Makati City dated 30 December 2010 is AFFIRMED with MODIFICATION , to the effect that: (a) We affirm that there is probable cause to charge Raynel Thomas Alvarado y Villas and Genevie Gragas y Bartolome with attempte