Court of Appeals voids warrants vs detained activists

MANILA, Philippines — Rights advocates welcomed on Monday a Court of Appeals (CA) decision to void the search warrants issued and used against three detained activists, including Reina Mae Nasino, whose 3-month-old daughter, River, died weeks after being separated from her.

In a 36-page decision, the court’s 12th Division granted the petition for certiorari filed by Nasino, Ram Carlo Bautista, and Alma Moran against Manila Judge Marivic Balisi-Umali and voided the search warrants issued by Quezon City Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert.

Rights group Karapatan said that Burgos-Villavert’s search warrants had led to the arrest of at least 76 activists, earning her the moniker “warrant factory.”

Those arrested, however, account for just a small fraction of the 801 political prisoners in the country, nearly half of them charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives like Nasino, Bautista, and Moran, according to Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

Kathy Panguban, Nasino’s counsel, thanked the court for its decision and for recognizing the inconsistencies that marked the activists’ arrests.

However, she lamented that these would no longer bring back the time lost and also the life of her client’s daughter. “These could have been avoided had it not been for her unjust imprisonment and forced separation from Baby River,” Panguban said.

Pregnant during her arrest in November 2019, Nasino gave birth on July 1, 2020, while under detention. She pleaded to no avail with the court to allow them to remain in the hospital or inside the Manila City Jail female dormitory’s prison nursery until her baby reached a year old.

River was turned over to Nasino’s mother but died in October 2020 after being hospitalized several times for diarrhea and fever.

Nasino, who was not allowed to visit her while she was in the hospital, was given permission to go to the wake for just three hours. She was also given the same amount of time to attend River’s funeral, while in handcuffs and under the watchful eye of the police.

Pure injustice

Fides Lim, a spokesperson for Kapatid, a support group for the families of political prisoners, urged the police to expedite the release of the three activists as every minute more spent in prison “is pure injustice and cruelty not only for these political prisoners, but for Baby River, who died just [more than] 2 months old without experiencing the embrace of her mother.”

For former Supreme Court spokesperson and lawyer Ted Te, there should be a writ to address the emotional suffering Nasino went through from her unjust imprisonment. This could also be applied to other persons deprived of liberty, he said.

Inadmissible evidence

Palabay, meanwhile, urged other courts to take their cue from Nasino’s release.

“The Marcos Jr. administration is equally accountable for this injustice as soon as they remain unjustly detained under his watch,” she said.

In its decision, the appellate court declared the warrants void for failing to meet the standards of a valid search warrant, thus making all evidence “procured by virtue thereof… inadmissible.”

It noted three different addresses in the application for the warrants, a glaring disparity that it said could have been clarified by a thorough examination of the applicant and witnesses.

“[A] perusal of the depositions, however, shows that the questions asked were a rehash of the contents of the application itself and the affidavits attached thereto. Thus, we are not convinced that probing questions were asked [of] the applicant and his witnesses to satisfy the existence of probable cause,” the court said in the decision penned by Associate Justice Emily San Gaspar-Gito.

According to the court, the issuance of the search warrants did not comply with the required existence of probable cause.

“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,” it said.

The court also observed that the implementation of the warrants was marred by irregularities, which violated the activists’ right against unreasonable search and seizure.

—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH 

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