‘Why were warrants served in darkness?’

SCHEDULED FOR INQUEST TODAY Vice Mayor Nova Parojinog-Echaves (center) arrives at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 from Ozamiz City. Behind her in a Nike jacket is her brother, Reynaldo Parojinog Jr. Both of them will face inquest today at Camp Crame. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Two senators on Monday raised this question as they expressed willingness to conduct an investigation into the police raids in Ozamiz City on Sunday that killed Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and 14 others, drawing parallels with the death of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. in November last year.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon wondered why the search warrants against the Parojinogs, as in the case of Espinosa, were “served in darkness.”

“Both are tagged as drug lords. Too much of a coincidence?” he said.

“The Senate has been doing a lot of investigations because a lot of things are happening. I don’t like it but it is made necessary by what is happening,” Drilon told reporters.

“Generally, a search warrant should be served in the daytime. While it may also be served anytime of the night, the issuing judge must so expressly specify in the search warrant,” Drilon said, referring to Section 9, Rule 126 of the Rules of Court.

This is also the general rule under the Philippine National Police manual, Sen. Francis Escudero said.

“In fact, there is a separate provision on searches and seizures alone in the Constitution to put a premium on how important this issue or this thing is,” Escudero said in a television interview.

The senator said the police had a lot of explaining to do. “The police cannot just say that ‘we were met by a volley of fire and everyone is killed and nobody is killed on our side,’” he said.

“I won’t be surprised if one of my colleagues will file a resolution to investigate what happened and given that both cases in the Albuera mayor and the Ozamiz mayor, they were both suspected of having drug links,” Escudero said.

“But that often by itself doesn’t merit a death warrant. Search warrant, maybe yes. Arrest warrant, maybe yes but not a death warrant,” the senator added.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said: “I don’t see the need to investigate unless there is a development later and there are signs that [Mayor Parojinog and the others] were summarily executed, which as of now we don’t see.”

The PNP chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, scoffed at remarks that search warrants should indicate a time.

“Every time is a legal time to serve a search warrant. There is nothing in the search warrant that says you serve it at a particular time, like during office hours,” Dela Rosa said, defending the raid that he said was carried out “to gain maximum advantage.”

“We have to be able to dictate the tempo of the operation,” he said.

Although he called the Parojinogs “big fishes” in the war on drugs, Magdalo  Rep. Gary Alejano said Sunday’s raid could have  “long-term implications on our democracy way beyond the term of President Duterte.”

“While it may look like a success on the surface like the thousands killed [in] the war on drugs, its impact [on] due process of law, human rights and professionalism of the PNP cannot be underestimated,” Alejano said.

“I strongly support the elimination of illicit drugs in the country as much as I strongly advocate for the strengthening of our democratic institutions and democratic processes in the country,” he said. —With reports from Nikko Dizon and Vince F. Nonato