Plea of guilt to a lesser offense:

8. People v. Garcia
Facts: Joint motion for approval of Plea Bargaining Agreement by both the prosecution
and accused Major Gen. Carlos Garcia for plunder and for violation of the Anti-Money
Laundering law. Accused filed a motion for reconsideration from the resolution of the court
denying his petition for bail. Accused invoked the allowing of plea bargaining after
arraignment.
Issue: whether there can be change of plea for plunder and offer of a guilty plea to the
lesser offense of indirect bribery?
Ruling: Yes.
Considering that Indirect Bribery under Art 211, RPC consists of receiving gifts in
consideration of the office of a public officer, and with the further consideration that
position of Gen. Garcia as Deputy Chief of Staff for Comptrollership, from which he
purportedly received gifts, was not even alleged in the information for Plunder, the court,
in the exercise of its sound discretion, allowed the guilty plea to the lesser offense of
Direct Bribery under Art. 210, par 3, RPC.
On the other hand, with respect to the change of negative plea for Anti Money Laundering
under Sec 4 (b) of the same law, the latter offense is necessarily included in the first.
Pursuant to the foregoing premises, accused Gen. Garcia was re-arraigned and pleaded
guilty to the lesser offenses of Direct Bribery and Violation of Sec. 4 (b) of RA 9160.

Suspension of Arraignment:
17. Reyes v. Rossi (2013)
Facts: Reyes and Advance Foundation, represented by Rossi, executed a deed of
conditional sale involving the purchase by Reyes of equipment worth P10M. The parties
agreed that Reyes would pay the sum of P3M downpayment and the balance of P7M thru
four post-dated checks. Reyes complied, however, he requested the restructuring of his
obligation under the deed of conditional sale by replacing the four post-dated checks with
nine post-dated check. Advance foundation agreed. However, two of the checks were
denied payment. With that, Reyes filed an action for rescission of contract and damages
in QC RTC. And Rossi filed Reyes with five counts of estafa and five counts of violation
of BP 22 in the Office of the prosecutor of QC.
Issue: Was there a suspension of the criminal case?
Ruling: No.
To properly appreciate if there is a prejudicial question to warrant the suspension of the
criminal actions, reference is made to the elements of the crimes charged.
In this light, it is clear that the pendency of the civil case does not bar the continuation of
the proceedings in the preliminary investigation on the ground that it poses a prejudicial
question. Considering that the contracts are deemed to be valid until rescinded, the
consideration and obligatory effect thereof are also deemed to have been validly made,
thus demandable. Consequently, there was no failure of consideration at the time when
the subject checks were dishonored. (Emphasis supplied)