We rule that
petitioners cannot seek by mandamus to compel respondents to prosecute
criminally those alleged violators of the banking laws. Although the Central
Bank and its respondent officials may have the duty under the Central Bank Act
and the General Banking Act to cause the prosecution of those alleged
violators, yet We find nothing in said laws that imposes a clear, specific duty
on the former to do the actual prosecution of the latter. The Central Bank is a
government corporation created principally to administer the monetary and
banking system of the Republic, not a prosecution agency like the fiscal's
office. Being an artificial person, The Central Bank is limited to its
statutory powers and the nearest power to which prosecution of violators of
banking laws may be attributed is its power to sue and be sued. But this corporate
power of litigation evidently refers to civil cases only.
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