affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls may be filed
originally in the Supreme Court.
A petition for relief from judgment is not included in the list of Rule 56
cases originally cognizable by this Court.
In Dela Cruz
v.
Andres,[10] We
reiterated Our pronouncement
[11]
in Mesina v. Meer, that a petition for relief from judgment is not an available
remedy in the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. The Court explained
that under the 1997 Revised Rules of Civil Procedure, the petition for relief
must be filed within sixty (60) days after petitioner learns of the judgment, final
order or other proceeding to be set aside and must be accompanied with
affidavits showing the fraud, accident, mistake, or excusable negligence relied
upon, and the facts constituting petitioners good and substantial cause of action
or defense, as the case may be.Most importantly, it should be filed with the
same court which rendered the decision, viz.:
Section 1. Petition for relief from judgment, order, or other
proceedings. When a judgment or final order is entered, or any other
proceeding is thereafter taken against a party in any court through fraud,
accident, mistake, or excusable negligence, he may file a petition in such court
and in the same case praying that the judgment, order or proceeding be set
aside.[12] (Underscoring supplied)
Second, while Rule 38 uses the phrase any court, it refers only to Municipal/
Metropolitan and Regional Trial Courts.
As revised, Rule 38 radically departs from the previous rule as it now
allows the Metropolitan or Municipal Trial Court which decided the case or
issued the order to hear the petition for relief. Under the old rule, a petition for
relief from the judgment or final order of Municipal Trial Courts should be filed
with the Regional Trial Court, viz.:
Section 1. Petition to Court of First Instance for relief from judgment
of inferior court. When a judgment is rendered by an inferior court on a case,
and a party thereto by fraud, accident, mistake, or excusable negligence, has
been unjustly deprived of a hearing therein, or has been prevented from taking
an appeal, he may file a petition in the Court of First Instance of the province
in which the original judgment was rendered, praying that such judgment be
set aside and the case tried upon its merits.