Abolition of People's Court and Office of Special Prosecutors

June 19, 1948

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 311

AN ACT ABOLISHING THE PEOPLE'S COURT AND THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL PROSECUTORS, PROVIDING FOR THE TRIAL AND DISPOSITION OF TREASON CASES NOT EMBRACED BY PROCLAMATION NUMBERED FIFTY-ONE GRANTING AMNESTY TO POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC COLLABORATORS, CREATING POSITIONS OF SPECIAL ATTORNEYS IN THE OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR

SECTION 1. The People's Court and the Office of Special Prosecutors, created by Commonwealth Act Numbered Six hundred and eighty-two, are hereby abolished.

SECTION 2. All cases now pending in the People's Court and not embraced by Amnesty Proclamation Numbered Fifty-one, issued by the President of the Philippines on January twenty-eight, nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and duly concurred in by the Congress of the Philippines, shall be transferred to, and tried by, the respective Courts of First Instance of the provinces or cities where the offenses are alleged to have been committed. Those cases the trial of which have already been started in the People's Court, shall likewise be transferred and tried by the corresponding Courts of First Instance without the necessity of retaking the testimonies or evidence already presented, and which will be considered as presented in said Courts of First Instance. The decisions of the Courts of First Instance in such cases shall be appealable to the Court of Appeals or to the Supreme Court, as the case may be, in accordance with the provisions of the existing laws and rules and shall be disposed of by the appellate court in the same manner as other criminal cases.

SECTION 3. There are hereby created in the Office of the Solicitor General fifteen positions of Special Attorneys, each with a salary of not more than seven thousand two hundred pesos per annum. Said Special Attorneys shall be appointed by the Secretary of Justice for the term of one year: Provided, however, That the appointment may be renewed from year to year if in the judgment of the Secretary of Justice their services or those of any of them are still needed. The Special Attorneys shall take charge of, or assist in, the prosecution of treason cases not embraced by the said Proclamation Numbered Fifty-one and perform such other duties as may be assigned to them by the Secretary of Justice or by the Solicitor General from time to time in the interest of public service.

The personnel of the People's Court and that of the Office of Special Prosecutors may be detailed by the Secretary of Justice to the Office of the Special Attorneys, but those whose services are no longer needed will be given bonus corresponding to six months' salary from the date of their separation from the service.

SECTION 4. From the funds set aside for the expenses of the Office of Special Prosecutors for the current fiscal year there is hereby appropriated the sum of one hundred twenty thousand pesos to pay the salaries of the Special Attorneys provided for in the preceding section and those of their corresponding personnel and to defray their traveling expenses and sundry expenses up to the end of the current fiscal year, June 30, 1948. aisa dc

SECTION 5. All properties, furniture and equipment, and records of the People's Court and of the Office of Special Prosecutors shall be transferred to the Department of Justice, but the records of cases not covered by the said Amnesty Proclamation shall be turned over to the corresponding Courts of First Instance for further proceedings in accordance with this Act.

SECTION 6. There is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the National Treasury not otherwise appropriated the sum of three hundred seventy-five thousand pesos for salaries and wages and other expenses of the Office of the Special Attorneys provided in this Act for the period from July 1, 1948, to June 30, 1949.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 19, 1948

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 45, No. 1, p. 124 in January 1949