Legal luminaries urge SC to implement reforms in issuance of search warrants

MANILA, Philippines — Over a hundred lawyers, law deans, and legal luminaries on Monday urged the Supreme Court to institute reforms in the issuance and service of search warrants.

Their call came following recent arrests and killings of activists during the implementation of search warrants such as the nine deaths in Calabarzon. On March 7, nine local activists were killed while the police and military are implementing search warrants issued by Manila Courts.

The police claimed that the nine who were killed fought back — “nanlaban.”

READ: PNP defends Calabarzon raids, says activists fought back

The Office of the Court Administrator (OCAD), in a report to Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta, said that the police applied for 63 search warrants last March 1. Of the 63 applications, 42 search warrants were approved in one go by Manila courts. Some of these 42 search warrants were served last March 7, the day on which the nine activists were killed.

In March 2019, search warrants issued by a Cebu court led to the death of 14 farmers in Negros Oriental. The applicant for these warrants was the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Central Visayas, then headed by Gen. Debold M. Sinas, who is now PNP chief.

Then in November 2019, search warrants issued by a Quezon City court led to the death or arrest of activists in Manila, Bacolod City, and other provinces.

In 2020, nine members of the indigenous Tumandok tribe in Iloilo were killed.

“We come to this Honorable Court to ask that it takes immediate concrete and responsive action on these matters. We urge the Court to immediately investigate this deadly trend that has not only resulted in the death and incarceration of many peaceful citizens but has also impacted on the public’s confidence in the integrity, prudence, and independence of judges,” read the letter submitted to the Supreme Court.

The lawyers, led by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), through the letter submitted proposals to reform the issuance of search warrants to ensure that judicial processes would not be abused to violate the constitutional rights of citizens.

Among their proposals to reform the issuance of search warrants are:

1) Review of A.M. No. 03-8-02-SC which authorizes Executive Judges of Manila and Quezon City or their Vice Executive Judges to issue, in special criminal cases, “remote or roving” search warrants that can be served anywhere in the country.

2) Applications for search warrants in the special criminal cases stated in A.M. No. 03-8-02-SC must be allowed to be filed only with the nearest court outside the locality where the place to be searched is located but within the judicial region of that place.

3) Requirement that applicants for search warrants must certify that they have not previously applied for a warrant in another court. If the same application for a search warrant has been previously denied by another court, the police will be required to attach the records and order of the previous court.

4) Limitation on the number of search warrant applications to be heard by a judge and prohibiting wholesale applications of search warrants that will not afford judges the opportunity to conduct a thorough scrutiny of the application and conduct searching questions on the applicants and their witnesses.

5) Requirement that searches should be undertaken during office hours and not in the middle of the night and the deployment of body cameras or video recording devices to record the entire police operation, from initial entry to its conclusion.

6) Providing a procedure for the person/s subject of the search and by independent witnesses to confirm the veracity of any video recording. This could also include requiring a designated prosecutor, subject to security protocols, to accompany and witness the whole operation from the start to its conclusion.

7) Prohibition against any restraint, relocation, or arrest of the subject of the search or other persons unless they are engaged in the actual commission of an offense or there are compelling reasons to use reasonable force in implementing the search.

8) Mandating that search warrants that resulted in death during the implementation should be subject to automatic review by the Supreme Court. The Court may consider including or designating the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Commission on Human Rights, among others, to be part of the review process.

Some of the signatories to the letter include Anti-Terror Act petitioners and counsels Evalyn Ursua and Theodore Te, former Senator Rene Saguisag,  former Vice-Pres. Jejomar Binay, former Constitutional Commissioner Christian Monsod, former Solicitor General Joel Cadiz, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, Howard Calleja, Raffy Aquino, Dean Chel Diokno, Bantuas Lucman, and Reps. Edcel Lagman and Kit Belmonte.

Other signatories include former Sen. Wigberto Tañada, former Rep. Erin Tanada, 2019 bar topnotcher Mae Diane Azores, and Sen. Leila de Lima’s chief of staff Philip Sawali, and lawyers Aaron Pedroza and Arpee Santiago of Ateneo Human Rights Center.

Law deans and members of the academe also signed the letter — Dean Ada Abad of Adamson, former UP Dean Pacifico Agabin, former Ateneo Dean Tony La Viña, Dean Rodel Taton of San Sebastin, and former Ateneo de Davao Dean Manny Quibod.

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