Practice question
Officers already have lawful probable cause to arrest a person before any search. A search is substantially contemporaneous with the arrest but immediately precedes the formal arrest. The defense asserts that timing alone necessarily invalidates it. What qualification did Macabuhay recognize?
- Any search may precede arrest without cause
- A substantially contemporaneous search may precede arrest if probable cause to arrest already existed at the outset of the search
- Later discovery of evidence always supplies missing prior cause
- The formal words of arrest abolish all scope limits
- A warrant is never needed for any subsequent search
Legal references
- Rule 126, Section 13; Macabuhay v. People, G.R. No. 270337, August 13, 2025; Patotoy v. People, G.R. No. 257910, March 4, 2025, main decisions.
- Reviewed primary authority, Rule 126, Section 13: https://lawphil.net/courts/rules/rc_110-127_crim.html
- Reviewed primary authority, Main decision, paragraph on substantially contemporaneous search and preexisting probable cause: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/1/70028
- Reviewed primary authority, Main decision, search purpose and scope: https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2025/mar2025/gr_257910_2025.html
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