Who may Prosecute; Crimes that Cannot be Prosecuted De Oficio

Prosecution as a Public Function

A criminal action is brought to vindicate a public wrong, even when the injury began as a private grievance. The offended party may complain, testify, recover civil liability, and assist through counsel, but the criminal case belongs to the People and is prosecuted under public authority.

Rule 110 treats prosecution as a controlled public process. The prosecutor determines, subject to law and the court's authority after filing, whether there is probable cause, what offense is charged, who should be charged, what evidence will be presented, and what trial positions will be taken for the People.

The rule on crimes that cannot be prosecuted de oficio is an exception to ordinary public prosecution only at the point of institution. In those offenses, the State may not initiate the criminal action without the complaint of the person designated by law, because the law gives weight to family privacy, personal honor, and the will of the offended party.

Once the required complaint is properly filed, however, the prosecution proceeds as a public action. The complainant's later loss of interest, compromise, forgiveness, or affidavit of desistance does not by itself bind the prosecutor or require dismissal, except where the law recognizes consent or pardon as a bar to institution.

Who May Prosecute Criminal Actions

All criminal actions commenced by complaint or information are prosecuted under the direction and control of the public prosecutor. The phrase covers both cases initiated by a sworn complaint and cases initiated by an information, because the controlling consideration is the public character of criminal liability.

A public prosecutor includes the officer legally authorized to represent the People in criminal proceedings, such as a city or provincial prosecutor, an assistant prosecutor, a state prosecutor, or another prosecution officer acting under a valid statutory assignment. For offenses within the constitutional and statutory authority of the Ombudsman, prosecutorial control belongs to the Ombudsman or the proper deputized or special prosecutor.

A private prosecutor may actively conduct the prosecution only under the conditions allowed by Rule 110. When the public prosecutor has a heavy work schedule or when there is a lack of public prosecutors, the private prosecutor may be authorized in writing by the chief of the prosecution office or the regional state prosecutor, subject to the court's approval.

Once properly authorized, the private prosecutor may continue prosecuting the criminal action up to the end of trial even in the absence of the public prosecutor, unless the written authority is revoked or withdrawn. The authorization does not convert the case into a private suit; the private prosecutor acts for the People and remains bound by the duties of a public prosecutor in the conduct of the criminal case.

Direction and Control of the Prosecutor

Direction and control means more than appearing at trial. It includes the assessment of probable cause, preparation and filing of the information, presentation of evidence, examination of witnesses, handling of incidents, and adoption of positions that affect the criminal liability of the accused.

The prosecutor may consider the complainant's evidence and views, but the prosecutor is not the complainant's counsel. The prosecutor must proceed only on the basis of probable cause and must avoid prosecuting a person when the evidence does not justify a criminal charge.

The prosecutor's control is strongest before the information is filed in court. At that stage, the prosecutor decides whether to dismiss the complaint, file an information, include or exclude persons from the charge, or conduct further investigation within the limits of the rules.

After the information is filed, the court acquires authority over the case and the accused is placed under the court's jurisdiction. A motion to withdraw the information, dismiss the case, downgrade the charge, or exclude an accused requires the court's approval, and the court must make its own evaluation instead of mechanically accepting the prosecutor's recommendation.

This division protects both public accountability and judicial independence. The prosecutor represents the People in determining and pursuing the charge, while the court ensures that dismissal, amendment, plea, or withdrawal does not defeat the accused's rights, the complainant's legitimate interests, or the public interest in criminal justice.

Complaint, Information, and the Offended Party's Signature

A complaint in criminal procedure is a sworn written statement charging a person with an offense. An information is an accusation subscribed by the prosecutor and filed with the court.

For ordinary offenses, the prosecutor may proceed upon a complaint filed by the offended party, a peace officer, or a public officer charged with enforcement of the law violated, and the eventual information is signed by the prosecutor. The offended party's signature is not ordinarily indispensable to the State's power to prosecute.

For offenses that cannot be prosecuted de oficio, the law requires a complaint by the specific person authorized to initiate the case. The requirement is a condition precedent to a valid prosecution, because the prosecutor may not use public authority to expose the private offense unless the law-designated complainant has chosen to invoke criminal process.

The required complaint does not make the complainant the prosecutor. It supplies the legal permission for the State to act; after that permission is validly given, the prosecutor conducts the case in the name of the People.

Meaning of Crimes Not Prosecuted De Oficio

A crime is not prosecuted de oficio when the State cannot initiate the criminal action on its own initiative and must await a complaint from the person named by law. The limitation concerns the commencement of the criminal action, not the nature of criminal liability.

The traditional term "private crimes" is convenient but imperfect. Adultery, concubinage, seduction, abduction, and acts of lasciviousness still offend the State; they are called private because prosecution depends on a private complainant's election to expose the offense.

The complaint requirement is strictly applied because it is the source of authority to prosecute. A complaint by a person not authorized by law does not satisfy the requirement, and the prosecutor cannot cure the absence of the required complainant by treating the offense as an ordinary public crime.

Rape is no longer within this class for purposes of institution. It is prosecuted as a crime against persons and may be prosecuted by the State without the complaint of the offended party, and subsequent marriage, pardon, or forgiveness does not extinguish the criminal action or penalty.

Adultery and Concubinage

Adultery and concubinage cannot be prosecuted except upon a complaint filed by the offended spouse. The offended spouse is the husband or wife whose marital right was violated by the alleged sexual infidelity punished by law.

The complaint must include both guilty parties if both are alive. This requirement prevents selective prosecution of only the spouse or only the paramour and reflects the legal view that the offense involves the joint participation of both alleged offenders.

If one of the guilty parties is dead, the rule requiring joinder of both living offenders no longer applies to that person. If both are alive and one is deliberately omitted, the prosecution is defective because the law withholds authority to prosecute selectively.

The offended spouse cannot institute the criminal action if he or she consented to the offense or pardoned the offenders. Consent refers to permission or acquiescence before or during the illicit relation, while pardon refers to forgiveness after knowledge of the offense.

Pardon in this context must be attributable to the offended spouse and must cover the offenders in a manner consistent with the requirement that both guilty parties be proceeded against when both are alive. A supposed forgiveness of only one participant cannot be used to justify prosecution of the other when the law demands inclusion of both.

Condonation may be inferred from acts clearly showing forgiveness, but it is not lightly presumed from delay, anger followed by temporary reconciliation, or efforts to preserve the family while facts are still uncertain. The decisive question is whether the offended spouse, with knowledge of the offense, voluntarily chose to excuse it before instituting prosecution.

Seduction, Abduction, and Acts of Lasciviousness

Seduction, abduction, and acts of lasciviousness cannot be prosecuted except upon a complaint filed by the offended party or by the persons whom Rule 110 allows to act in her behalf. The rule protects the offended party's personal dignity while still permitting prosecution when she is unable or unwilling to initiate the case herself under legally recognized circumstances.

The offended party, even if a minor, has the right to initiate the prosecution independently of her parents, grandparents, or guardian, unless she is incompetent or incapable of doing so. Her legal capacity to complain is recognized because the injury is primarily personal to her.

If the offended party is a minor and does not file the complaint, her parents, grandparents, or guardian may file it. Their right is exclusive of all other persons and is exercised successively in the order stated by the rule, so parents have priority, then grandparents, then the guardian.

If the offended party dies or becomes incapacitated before she can file the complaint, and she has no known parents, grandparents, or guardian, the State may initiate the criminal action in her behalf. This exception prevents the offender from escaping prosecution merely because the person whose complaint is normally required can no longer act and no statutory representative is available.

An express pardon by the offended party or by a person authorized by law to act for her may bar prosecution when it is legally effective before institution. For these offenses, the rule requires an express pardon; forgiveness is not inferred from silence, delay, social pressure, or ambiguous family arrangements.

Acts of lasciviousness must be read with related child protection and sexual abuse laws where the victim is a child or where a special statute defines the offense and its mode of prosecution. When a special law governs, the authority to complain, investigate, and prosecute follows that special law, while the criminal action remains under public prosecutorial control unless the statute provides otherwise.

Defamation Based on Imputation of Private Offenses

No criminal action for defamation consisting in the imputation of adultery, concubinage, seduction, abduction, or acts of lasciviousness may be brought except at the instance of and upon complaint filed by the offended party. The defamatory charge is a separate offense, but the law uses the same privacy policy because prosecution would require public airing of the imputed private offense.

The offended party in this setting is the person defamed by the imputation. The rule prevents strangers or public officers from initiating a defamation case that the person whose honor is directly attacked does not want to pursue.

If the defamatory matter imputes an offense outside the listed private offenses, the special complaint requirement does not arise from this rule. Ordinary rules on the institution and prosecution of defamation then apply, subject to the substantive law defining the offense and the court with jurisdiction.

Effect of Desistance, Settlement, and Compromise

A complainant's affidavit of desistance does not automatically extinguish criminal liability or require dismissal after a valid criminal action has begun. The prosecutor and the court may consider desistance in assessing credibility, availability of evidence, or the public interest, but criminal liability is not a debt that the offended party can simply waive.

A civil settlement may affect the civil aspect of the case but does not erase the criminal action unless the law itself makes consent, pardon, or another circumstance a bar. The State may continue prosecution when evidence of guilt exists despite the complainant's settlement with the accused.

In the offenses not prosecuted de oficio, the legally significant act is the required complaint before institution, and, where recognized, a legally effective consent or pardon before institution. After the criminal action is validly commenced, private change of mind is generally evidentiary rather than jurisdictional.

Special Laws

Prosecution for violations of special laws is governed by the provisions of those laws. A special law may identify who may file a complaint, which agency may investigate, whether a public officer may initiate the case, and which prosecution office has authority to file the information.

When the special law is silent, the ordinary rule applies: criminal actions are prosecuted under the direction and control of the public prosecutor. A victim's complaint, an agency referral, or a police complaint may start the process, but the prosecutor's authority over the criminal action remains public.

Special statutes protecting women, children, public officers, consumers, elections, securities markets, taxation, and other regulated fields often broaden the persons who may report or complain. Broad reporting authority is not the same as private control of prosecution; it merely supplies a lawful source of information or initiation for the prosecutor or the agency authorized by law.