FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 236666. February 14, 2018.]
EDUARDO B. DUNGAO, petitioner,vs. HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS, JAIME SANCHEZ, AND ALEJANDRO MIGUEL, respondents.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution datedFebruary 14, 2018which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 236666 — Eduardo B. Dungao, petitioner vs. Honorable Court of Appeals, Jaime Sanchez, and Alejandro Miguel, respondents.
This Court has carefully reviewed the allegations, issues, and arguments adduced in the instant Petition for Certiorari filed under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court, and accordingly resolves to DISMISS the same for being a wrong remedy and evidently used by the petitioner as a substitute for the lost remedy of appeal under the Rules of Court to exculpate himself from the trial, court's judgment of conviction for violation of Batas Pambansa Blg. 22 which was affirmed on appeal both by the Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals.
It is settled that "a special civil action for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court is proper only when there is neither appeal nor any plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. The extraordinary remedy of certiorari is not a substitute for a lost appeal x x x." 1 It has been held that:
It is settled that a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court is a pleading limited to correction of errors of jurisdiction or grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction. Its principal office is to keep the inferior court within the parameters of its jurisdiction or to prevent it from committing such a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction. It may issue only when the following requirements are alleged in and established by the petition: (1) that the writ is directed against a tribunal, a board or any officer exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions; (2) that such tribunal, board or officer has acted without or in excess of jurisdiction, or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction; and (3) that there is no appeal or any plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.
xxx xxx xxx
On the other hand, Section 1, Rule 45 of the Rules of Court provides that the proper remedy to question a judgment, final order or resolution of the CA, as in the present case, is a petition for review on certiorari regardless of the nature of the action or proceeding involved. The petition must be filed within fifteen (15) days from notice of the judgment, final order or resolution appealed from; or of the denial of petitioner's motion for reconsideration filed in due time after notice of the judgment.
This Court has ruled that because an appeal was available to the aggrieved party, the action for certiorari would not be entertained. We emphasized in that case that the remedies of appeal and certiorari are mutually exclusive, not alternative or successive. Where an appeal is available, certiorari will not prosper, even if the ground is grave abuse of discretion.
By filing the present special civil action for certiorari under Rule 65, petitioners, therefore, clearly availed themselves of the wrong remedy. Under Supreme Court Circular 2-90, an appeal taken to this Court or to the CA by a wrong or an inappropriate mode merits outright dismissal. On this score alone, the instant petition is dismissible. 2
Even if we consider the instant petition as one filed under Rule 45, the same must still be denied for having been filed late. As such, the assailed judgment of the Court of Appeals had already become final and executory.
ACCORDINGLY, the instant Petition for Certiorari filed pursuant to Rule 65 of the Rules of Court is DISMISSED.
SO ORDERED."
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) LIBRADA C. BUENADeputy Division Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1.Local Water Utilities Administration Employees Association for Progress (LEAP) v. Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), G.R. Nos. 206808-09, September 7, 2016, 802 SCRA 357, 366-367; citation omitted.
2.Id.; citations omitted.