QC judge quashes ‘causeless’ warrant

Gaps in a police witness’ testimony led a Quezon City court to quash search warrants issued for peace talks consultants Alexander and Winona Birondo, who were arrested in July 2019 when policemen raided their apartment.

In his resolution dated Aug. 13, Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 77 Judge Ferdinand Baylon pointed out the “puzzling dissonance” in the sworn statement of police witness Brian Reyes, who said he had seen firearms while peeking into the Birondo’s unit in Quezon City.

“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,” Judge Baylon said in his resolution.

Baylon said inconsistencies in Reyes’ statements could have been clarified during the hearing on the two search warrants issued by Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of Quezon City in 2019.

No definite link

In his resolution on the first warrant issued by Burgos-Villavert, Baylon said there was “no attempt to ask searching and probing questions” on the witness, who claimed that he saw a grenade in the couple’s apartment.

“Other than the evidence that the accused were the tenants of the said apartment, there was no evidence definitely linking any of them to the firearm and ammunition seen by the witness. It was not made clear during the examination of Mr. Reyes whether he actually saw any of the accused in actual possession of the firearm and ammunition,” the judge said in his resolution on the second warrant.

The couple were arrested for allegedly blocking the arrest of Rolando Caballero, who had a standing arrest warrant for murder, in their Quezon City home on July 23, 2019.

Alexander, then 67, and his wife, Winona, then 60, were brought to the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit at Camp Karingal, where investigators found that the couple had been accused of illegal possession of firearms and explosives on March 4, 2015.

However, they were released on bail in August 2016 to join the peace talks with the Philippine government as consultants for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Oslo, Norway.

Their case was eventually dismissed in June 2018.