Search warrant vs. Bacolod activists quashed

A Bacolod court has voided the search warrants that became the basis for the arrest of several activists in the city in October 2019.

Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 42 Judge Ana Celeste Bernad found the warrant issued by Quezon City Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert against John Milton Lozande defective, saying it failed to specify the place to be searched for firearms and ammunition.

“It simply authorizes a search of #222 Ilang Ilang Street, Barangay Bata, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental,” the court said in a resolution dated February 18.

“The said address, however, upon entry is made up of three structures that can be seen inside the compound containing a lot area of 375 square meters, more or less.”

The court said it would seem that the warrant gave the raiding team “unbridled and thus illegal authority to search all the structures” in the indicated address.

“There was therefore, in this case, an infringement of the constitutional requirement that a search warrant particularly describe the place to be searched,” it said.

“Upon strict observance of the constitutional and statutory rights all the firearms and other materials seized were inadmissible for any purpose in any proceeding.”

Search warrants issued against Karina Mae dela Cerna, Cherryl Catalogo, Proseso Quiatchon, Albert dela Cerna and Noli Rosales were also quashed by the court. Lozande, secretary general of the National Federation of Sugar Workers, is currently out on bail.

“This latest decision of the court which overturned the presumption that the search warrant issued by Judge Burgos-Villavert satisfied the constitutional requirement of definiteness has increasingly disprove the competence and integrity of the said judge as well as other similar judges who have arbitrarily issued search warrants against known activist and members of caused-oriented organizations,” the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers-Panay chapter said in a statement.

It was also Villavert who issued the search warrant that led to the arrest of Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem and trade unionist Rodrigo Esparago last December 10.

A Mandaluyong City court later nullified the warrant, saying there was no probable cause to issue such authority to law enforcers. Salem and Esparago were released from detention on March 5. -MDM, GMA News