Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15) — The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the decision to dismiss the search warrant issued against red-tagged journalist Lady Ann Salem and union organizer Rodrigo Esparago.
The CA decision promulgated on Jan. 27 said it dismissed the government’ s petition for certiorari and affirmed the orders of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court (RTC) to quash the search warrants.
The CA cited inconsistencies and contradictions in testimonies in the case, saying that the RTC’s decision was “proper and just.”
Salem and Esparago were arrested in December 2020 for allegedly being involved in gun-running after authorities found firearms while implementing the raid.
In February 2021, the Mandaluyong RTC junked the search warrant, and declared the illegally seized firearms as inadmissible.
“As correctly held by the RTC, not knowing which cellphone and laptop the searching officers were supposed to seize, the raiding team took all that they found and undertook a ‘fishing expedition to seize and confiscate’ any and all cellphones and laptops they found in the premises,” the CA said.
The CA also pointed out that taking items not mentioned in the search warrant “is a violation of the fundamental right of the private respondents against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
Instead of taking only one laptop and one cellphone, the law enforcers took four laptops and five cellphones of different brands.
Esparago and Salem also said the raid was implemented past midnight while they were forced to kneel and face the wall, preventing them from witnessing the search that took over an hour.
The CA noted that the police did not deny Esparago and Salem’s claims.
“The RTC did not err in reversing the finding of the probable cause since the sole basis of the search warrants were the sworn statements and testimonies of the witnesses, which were inconsistent and contradictory, hence probable cause was not sufficiently established,” the CA added.
