Practice question
A husband gives his friend a special power of attorney to initiate adultery proceedings. The friend files his own complaint-affidavit as initiating complainant and attaches the husband's affidavit as an annex. An information is later filed. Under Chua-Chiba v. Chiba, is the required offended-spouse complaint satisfied merely by this arrangement?
- Yes; any special power of attorney substitutes for the spouse's complaint
- No; the representative's initiating complaint is not cured merely by annexing the spouse's affidavit
- Yes; filing an information always cures the missing private-crime complaint
- Yes; any person may initiate adultery because it is a criminal offense
- No; courts derive all subject-matter jurisdiction from a spouse's affidavit
Legal references
- https://lawphil.net/courts/rules/rc_110-127_crim.html — Rule110 §§2–4,5 private-crime clauses,10,15–16 and Rule111; read §5 first paragraph with AM02-2-07-SC amendment.
- https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2025/may2025/gr_277020_2025.html — Chua-Chiba v Chiba, GR277020, May19 2025, MAIN decision (offended-spouse complaint and statutory court jurisdiction).
- https://chief.lawphil.net/courts/supreme/am/am_02-2-07-sc_2002.html — A.M. No. 02-2-07-SC, April 10, 2002, effective May 1, 2002 (written authorization and court approval of private prosecution).
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