The Supreme Court has denied the petition for habeas corpus for the release of Dr. Benigno Agbayani, Jr., the doctor who died in detention after a lower court found him guilty of medical malpractice.

In a resolution of the 2nd Division promulgated on August 7, 2024, the court noted that the supervening death of Dr. Agbayani on October 5, 2023 rendered the petition for habeas corpus moot and academic.

“This event precluded the court from further exercising its judicial power for lack of a justiciable controversy,” the Supreme Court said in a statement on the resolution penned by Associate Justice Antonio Kho, Jr.

Aside from the death of Dr. Agbayani, the court also stated that by going to the Supreme Court directly instead of the Regional Trial Court level and the Court of Appeals, there was violation of the principle of hierarchy of courts.

The SC also stressed that the petition was a wrong remedy since it is the proper petition for a person illegally deprived of liberty.

“In Dr. Agbayani’s case, his arrest and incarceration were the result of a process issued by a court or by virtue of a judgment or order of a court that has jurisdiction to issue the same,” the SC said.

Dr. Agbayani was found guilty by the Metropolitan Trial Court of reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injuries for using unsterilized medical instrument in the operation he conducted on the left knee of Saul Hofilena, Jr.

He was sentenced to two years in prison and his appeal before the Regional Trial Court level dragged on for reasons cited by the court as  “heavy pressure of work”, among others.

In the petition filed by Dr. Agbayani’s common-law spouse Angeli Akabane, the two-year sentence was already served.