NCRPO chief denies hand in warrants vs Gabriela, Bayan Muna

MANILA, Philippines — Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), denies influencing the issuance of search warrants against members of Bayan Muna and Gabriela offices in Negros Occidental.

Several groups have been questioning Sinas’s talk with Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos Villavert of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) last Thursday, Oct. 31, hours before simultaneous military-police raids in Bacolod and Escalante in Negros Occidental.

It was Villavert who issued the search warrant for the operation, which resulted in the arrest of 57 activists — 15 of them minors — for illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

“We just made a courtesy call. It’s inherent in us to pay a courtesy call to judges — meet and greet and ask for if they have any need for security,” Sinas, speaking partly in Filipino, said in an interview with AM radio station DWIZ.

“But I had nothing to do with the search warrant because that was up to the judge to determine, not me. It just so happened that I visited the judge, as I will visit all executive judges,” he added

Sinas said he had discussed the case with the Manila Police District director, Brig. Gen. Bernabe Balba.

“All we know about it was that it was only for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. We did not know that there was more to it than that,” Sinas said.

READ: Bayan Muna questions NCRPO’s Sinas’ talks with judge who issued search warrant