Candelaria v. Court

Summary

Petitioners Jay Candelaria and Eric Basit were arrested during a buy-bust operation for selling counterfeit Fundador Brandy and charged with IP Code violations. After arraignment, they filed a motion to suppress evidence claiming illegal search and seizure. The RTC denied their motion, ruling they were estopped from questioning their arrest's legality after pleading, and that the evidence was admissible as it was obtained incident to a valid arrest. Petitioners directly filed a certiorari petition with the Supreme Court challenging the RTC's denial. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, emphasizing that certiorari is limited to jurisdictional errors, not errors in judgment. The Court also noted petitioners' failure to properly invoke certiorari procedures and their violation of the hierarchy of courts principle by bypassing the Court of Appeals. This case reinforces procedural requirements for extraordinary remedies and the distinction between jurisdictional and judgment errors.