Plea of guilty to lesser offense. - At arraignment, the accused, with the consent of the offended party and the prosecutor, may be allowed by the trial court to plead guilty to a lesser offense which is necessarily included in the offense charged. After arraignment but before trial, the accused may still be allowed to plead guilty to said lesser offense after withdrawing his plea of not guilty. No amendment of the complaint or information is necessary.

"Xxx.

Preliminarily, petitioners are challenging, on procedural standpoint, the manner in which the proceeding in Criminal Case No. DU-3721 entitled People v. Norman Maramara was conducted. They point out that after Maramara was arraigned in the morning of July 19, 1993, the trial court hastily heard and approved a plea bargain motion in the afternoon leading to his immediate conviction on the same day. They also fault the trial court in concluding that there were no aggravating or mitigating circumstances to appreciate despite Maramara's confession to the murder of the victim. They likewise question why the filing of Criminal Case Nos. DU-3721 and DU-3938[15] was done separately and not simultaneously. According to petitioners, the conviction of Maramara in Criminal Case No. DU-3721 was precipitately done following a skewed procedure.

We disagree. We find no legal flaw in the assailed actions of the trial court in Criminal Case No. DU-3721.

At the outset, it is easily discemable that petitioners failed to point out any rule of procedure or provision of law that was transgressed by the trial court. On the contrary, the plea bargain was validly acted upon despite the fact that all the proceedings, i.e. arraignment, plea bargaining and conviction, occurred on a single day. Section 2, Rule 116 of the Rules of Court, which authorizes plea bargain for a lesser offense in a criminal case, is explicit on how and when a plea bargain may be allowed. The rule pertinently provides:

Sec. 2. Plea of guilty to lesser offense. - At arraignment, the accused, with the consent of the offended party and the prosecutor, may be allowed by the trial court to plead guilty to a lesser offense which is necessarily included in the offense charged. After arraignment but before trial, the accused may still be allowed to plead guilty to said lesser offense after withdrawing his plea of not guilty. No amendment of the complaint or information is necessary.

As clearly worded, there is nothing in the law which expressly or impliedly prohibits the trial court from allowing an accused to change his plea, on a plea bargain, immediately after a previous plea of not guilty. In approving the plea bargaining agreement, the trial court undoubtedly took into consideration the timeliness of the plea bargaining and its compliance with the requirements of the law.

Neither do we see any error in the trial court's holding that there were no aggravating or mitigating circumstances to appreciate even with Maramara's confession of murder for the obvious reason that introduction of evidence became no longer necessary after entering a plea of guilty.

Respecting the non-simultaneous filing of Criminal Case Nos. DU-3721 and DU-3938, suffice it to say that at the time Maramara pleaded guilty, the present charge against petitioners was still in the initial stage of preliminary investigation.

Xxx."

VIRGILIO BUG-ATAN, BERME LABANDERO GREGORIO MANATAD PETITIONERS, VS. THE PEOPLE OF PHILIPPINES, Respondent. G.R. No. 175195, September 15, 2010.

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