PEOPLE V ALICANDO GR NO.

117487 (DECEMBER 2, 1995)

Facts: Accused was convicted with a crime of rape with homicide of a 4 year old girl. He was
arrested and during the interrogation he made a confession of the crime without the assistance of
a counsel. By virtue of his uncounseled confession the police came to know where to find the
evidences consisting of the victim’s personal things like clothes stained with blood which was
admitted to court as evidences. The victim pleaded guilty during the arraignment and
was convicted with the death penalty. The case was forwarded to the SC for automatic review.

Issue: Whether or not due process during the custodial investigation was accorded to the accused.

Held: Due process was not observed in the conduct of custodial investigation for the accused. He
was not informed of his right to a counsel upon making his extrajudicial confession and the
information against him was written in a language he could not understand and was not explained
to him. This is in violation of section 1(a) of Rule 116, the rule implementing the constitutional right
of the appellant to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusationagainst him. The lower
court also violated section 3 of Rule 116 when it accepted the plea of guilt of the appellant without
conducting a search inquiry on the voluntariness and full understanding of the accused of the
consequences of his plea. Moreover the evidences admitted by the court that warranted
his convicted were inadmissible because they were due to an invalid custodial investigation that did
not provide the accused with due process of the law. Thus the SC annulled the decision of the
imposition of the death penalty and remanded the case back to the lower for further proceeding.