WARRANTLESS ARRESTS therein. (People v.
Manlulu, 231 SCRA 701
GENERAL RULE: Sec 2 imposes that warrants are
necessary for the arrest and all of the warrants must be
based on Probable Cause. Otherwise, this will be
infringement of the right to liberty.
Section 5, Rule 113 of the Rules of Court
This discusses about Arrest and enumerates the 3
instances when a person may be arrested without any
warrant therein:
A peace officer or a private person may, without a warrant,
arrest a person:
 IN FAGRANTE DELICTO: When, in his
presence, the person to be arrested has
committed, is actually committing, or attempting
to commit an offense;
 HOT PURSUIT: When an offense has in fact
been committed, and he has personal knowledge
of facts indicating that the person to be arrested
has committed it; and
 ESCAPED PRISONER: 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
a. In flagrante delicto
When in case of a buy-bust operations the person
arrested was in possession of an item prohibited
by law, there is no need for warrant as there is a
crime being committed in the mere possession
during an entrapment. (People v. De La Cruz, GR
83260, April 18, 1990)
However, when there is instigation from the
Police Officer or any form of inducement that will
occur, that is the prohibition of the law as to the
entrapment. When seduction into a criminal mind
is present in the acts of the police officer, such
entrapment will be invalid. (People v. Doria, GR
125299, January 22, 1999)
The evidence that is gathered in an illegal arrest
will not be admissible to court for proceedings
against him. (People v. Mengote – 210 SCRA
174)
NB: There must be an actual commission of the crime that
time is of essence to arrest the person committing therein
that is when a warrantless arrest is valid. In Criminal Law,
the immediacy of the act in in flagrante delicto is
immaterial but the personal knowledge of the criminal act
is non-negotiable.
b. Hot pursuit
Requisites for an arrest in hot pursuit:
 An offense had just been committed.
 The person making the arrest has probable cause
to believe, based on his personal knowledge of
facts and circumstances, that the person to be
arrested committed it.
 There must be immediacy between the time the
offense is committed and the time of the arrest.
Go v. CA – 206 SCRA 138
There must be an actual crime committed and
that the fact of such must come first with the
concurrence of the personal knowledge of the
arresting officer as to who committed the crime
(1994) and People v. Jayson, 282 SCRA 166
(1997)
NB: A warrantless arrest coupled with a warrantless
search is allowed by law. Otherwise, there is no valid
arrest and all evidence therein is inadmissible. A valid
warranted arrest may also be allowed with warrantless
reach provided limited within the prescriptions of the
Rules of Court.
c. Escaped prisoner
There is no need for a warrant of arrest as the arrest of an
escaped prisoner is predicated upon the judicial order of
detention which the person have escaped from. The mere
arrest of an escapee is an extension of the execution of
the aid judicial order.
d. Waiver
The active knowledge of an illegal arrest and subsequent
plea without the defense of the illegality therein will be a
direct and express waiver of the illegality of arrest under
Art 3 Sec 3 of the Constitution and Rules of Court 113 Sec
5.
e. Procedural rules
People v. Rabang – 187 SCRA 682
People v. Lopez – 246 SCRA 95
Velasco v. CA – 245 SCRA 677
People v. Buluran – 325 SCRA 476
Additional readings:
- Section 2, Article III, Constitution
- RA 7438: An Act defining certain rights
of person arrested, detained under
custodial investigation as well as the
duties of the arresting, detaining and
investigating officers, and providing
penalties for violations thereof
Cases:
 AAA v. Carbonell, G.R. No. 171465, 8
June 2007, 524 SCRA 496
 People v. Alunday, G.R. No. 181546, 3
September 2008, 564 SCRA 135
 People v. del Rosario, G.R. No.
127755, 14 April 1999, 305 SCRA 740
 People v. Jayson, G.R. No. 120330, 18
November 1997, 282 SCRA 166
 People v. Edaño, G.R. No. 188133, 7
July 2014, 729 SCRA 255
 Pestilos v. Generoso, G.R. No. 182601,
10 November 2014, 739 SCRA 337