Kapatid calls for release of Nasino, 2 activists after court voids faulty warrants
MANILA, Philippines — Kapatid, an advocacy and support group for political prisoners, is calling for the immediate release of detained activists Reina Mae Nasino, Alma Moran and Ram Carlo Bautista after the Court of Appeals voided the search warrants that led to their arrest.
Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim said in a statement Monday that nothing now stands in the way of freedom of the three activists who have been detained since February 2020.
"We ask the courts to order their prompt release. Let Reina Mae now visit the grave of her baby daughter and mourn her in peace, which was so cruelly denied to her during the wake and burial of River,” Lim said.
This was after the Court of Appeals 12th Division granted the Petition for Certiorari filed by the three activists that questioned the July 1, 2020 and July 22, 2020 orders of a Manila court that denied their Motion to Quash, and rejected their appeal.
"Search Warrants Nos. 5944 (19) and 5945 (19) are declared VOID for failure to meet the standards of a valid search warrant, and all evidence procured by virtue thereof are deemed inadmissible," Associate Justice Emily San Gaspar-Gito wrote.
The activists have been detained since Feb. 19, 2020, and Nasino was then pregnant.
She gave birth during custody and was separated from Baby River after a month. Appeals and requests to the court to let her be with her baby until River turned a year old were denied.
Baby River died in October 2020, and Nasino attended the burial in shackles, unable to hug her daughter or even wipe her tears properly as jail guards and security personnel watched her closely.
Three different addresses
In resolving the detainees’ petition, the CA held that "such grave abuse of discretion is present" in the issuance of the search warrants.
The CA pointed out that case records showed that the Search Warrants had three different addresses: No. 1822 Hondarez Street, corner Algeciras Street, Brgy. 444, Sampaloc, Manila; No. 672 Flora St. corner Clemente Street, Brgy. 183, Tondo, Manila and 672 Flora St. Brgy 178, Gagalangin, Tondo, Manila.
The search warrants were eventually implemented at 672 Flora St. corner Clemente Street, Brgy. 183, Tondo Manila "thereby camouflaging their mistake, perpetrating their mistake and misleading everyone with such mistake," the CA pointed out.
"These apparent irregularities in the application and implementation of the subject Search Warrants are more than enough to debunk the presumption of regularity of performance of official duties," it said.
According to the Bill of Rights in the 1987 Constitution, warrants — for arrest or to authorize a search — may only be issued "upon probable cause to be determined personally by the judge after examination under oath or affirmation of the complainant and the witnesses he may produce, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized."
'Search warrant factory'
The appeals court also said that the issuance of the search warrants by Quezon City Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert did not comply with the requirement of probable cause.
The CA pointed out that the glaring disparity in the addresses would have been clarified through a thorough examination of applicant and witnesses, but case records showed that questions asked were a rehash of the applications itself.
"Thus, we are not convinced that probing questions were asked to the applicant and his witnesses to satisfy the existence of probable cause," the CA ruling read.
"With the erroneous addresses that were never clarified, there is but one logical conclusion, i.e., the applicant and his witnesses did not really have personal knowledge of the surrounding facts which would have justified the issuance of the subject Search Warrants. Consequently, the existence of probable cause is doubtful," the court added.
Burgos-Villavert is the judge who issued search warrants that led to the arrest of several activists, trade union leaders and even journalist Lady Ann Salem. The authority that gave the QC judge power to issue what activists called are "roving warrants" has since been limited by the Supreme Court.
Following the ruling that the search warrants are invalid, the CA said that evidence seized cannot be used against the detained activists because of the doctrine of fruit of the poisonous tree.
Kapatid’s Lim then went on to appeal to courts trying cases that stemmed from search warrants issued by Villavert to "take a hard look at the inconsistent and incredulous testimonies of police witnesses and likewise dismiss the cases for clearly being trumped up against activists."
Amid mounting pressure to put safeguards on rules that activists claim have been weaponized against them, the SC in July 2021 promulgated the Rules on the Use of Body-Worn Cameras.
Under the same rules, the SC limited the power of Manila and Quezon City executive and vice executive judges to issue search warrants outside their jurisdiction, an authority that progressive groups claimed has been weaponized against activists.
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