Mandaluyong court orders release of Lady Ann Salem, trade unionist

A Mandaluyong City court on Friday ordered the release of journalist Lady Ann Salem and trade unionist Rodrigo Esparago following the dismissal last month of the illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges against them.

Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio of the Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court Branch 209 issued the order after granting the motion for release filed by the lawyers of Salem and Esparago and junking the prosecution’s opposition.

Salem, an editor of Manila Today, and Esparago were among those arrested in a series of raids which reportedly yielded loose firearms last December 10.

Last month, the court ruled that there was no probable cause to issue the search warrants on Salem and Esparago's residence.

The judge previously decided to keep her order in abeyance “in view of an honest belief” that the dismissal can be reviewed by a higher court.

But after “thorough consideration” of the arguments raised, Ignacio found that “a trial court is empowered to immediately release the accused if the evidence on record clearly fails to establish probable cause.”

“The order is a breather in the midst of the continuing attacks against journalists and lawyers,” the Public Interest Law Center, which represented Salem in court, said in a statement.

“We hope that the other victims of the trumped up charges resulting from the implementation of this void search warrant will be released from detention also. We will work harder to break the cycle of police abuse in search warrant applications and implementation, and political persecution on the whole,” it added.

Manila Today said while it celebrated the court’s decision, “the relentless attacks against press freedom, critical individuals and organizations reign at worse.”

“The vanguards of democracy have long been targeted with state-inflicted violence through illegal red-tagging, incarceration, or worse, killings,” the online media outfit said.

“In fact, the raid operations and fabrication of search warrants became a habit for state forces in perpetuation of their scheme only to manufacture a crime.” -NB/AOL, GMA News