A court magistrate has quashed a search warrant issued earlier by fellow Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert that led to the 2019 arrest and detention of National Democratic Front (NDF) peace talks staff Alexander and Winona Birondo.
In his order dated August 13, Judge Ferdinand Baylon of Quezon City RTC Branch 77 granted the motion of the defense seeking to quash the search warrants issued by Villavert on ground that they were issued without probable cause.
“The questions left unanswered and the inconsistencies not clarified belies the existence of probable cause, which justify the issuance of the search warrants. For this reason, the warrants should be quashed,” Baylon ruled.
“Wherefore, above premises considered, the search warrants are hereby quashed and declared invalid. The evidence recovered pursuant to these search warrants are deemed inadmissible as evidence,” he said.
Baylon said he found that in one of the two search warrants, Burgos-Villavert failed to ask searching and probing questions as to the inconsistencies in the statements of the primary witness, who claimed to have seen a grenade inside the Birondo’s room in his affidavit but did not say so in his testimony.
“This puzzling dissonance in the witness’ sworn statement could have been clarified during the hearing for the application of the search warrant but unfortunately, such was not touched upon during his testimony,” Baylon stressed.
“The testimony that he saw a grenade appears to have been spoon-fed to him when he was reminded of what he stated in his sworn statement. The witness appears to have been led to state that he saw a grenade, together with the firearm. He was only made to affirm what he stated in his sworn statement. This is not enough especially if we are to note that prior to these questions, the witness never stated that he saw a grenade,” he said.
According to the court judge, a more circumspect line of questioning could had been asked to determine if the witness actually saw a grenade or was merely guided by the question.
“He could also have been asked how he knew that what he saw was agrenade, and thereafter made to describe the same, if only to test his credibility,” Baylon said.
The judge also discovered that the second search warrant did not particularly describe the firearm to be seized, and it was not established that the Birondos possessed the gun and ammunition.
“It should also be pointed out that there was nothing in the testimony of the witness which categorically pointed to the accused herein as the possessors of the firearm/ammunition. In fact, the witness never stated that he saw any of the accused herein being in possession of the firearm and ammunition,” he observed.
Baylon also raised questions regarding the identity of the primary witness-particularly on why he started collecting garbage on the same month the search warrants were served, how he came to collect garbage in the Birondo’s room and how he was approached by the police to testify in their application for search warrant.
“His history and identity were not sufficiently established. In his sworn statement, he identified himself as a maintenance/janitor or
Archway Apartment. However, during his testimony in court, he stated he was a garbage collector paid by the tenants to collect their garbage and was in fact not an employee of said apartment complex.
According to him, he was just referred by friends who live in the units. However, these friends were not identified,” Baylon said.
The Birondos were among the NDF peace talks staff released on bail in 2016 at the start of the peace talks between the government and the communist movement under the Duterte administration.
But they were rearrested after the peace talks collapsed and charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Early this year, Mandaluyong City RTC Branch 209 Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio also voided the search warrant issued by
Burgos-Villavert that was used by the police to arrest and charge lady journalist Lady Ann Salem and trade unionist Rodrigo Esparago in December 2019.
It was followed by a similar quashal order issued by Bacolod City RTC Branch 42 Judge Ana Celeste Bernad on another search warrant issued by Burgos-Villavert that was used by the police to apprehend six activists belonging to the Kilusang Mayo Uno in 2019.
Burgos-Villavert is also the same judge who issued search warrants in 2019 that led to the arrest of 60 individuals in Negros and Manila, including Reina Mae Nasino, who gave birth and lost her baby last year while under detention at the Manila City Jail.
Various groups have criticized what they called as “weaponized search warrants” and urged the Supreme Court to probe so-called “warrant factories.”