Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Killings show PNP abuse of warrants, Lawyer say. Inquirer Newsletter. March 10, 2021.

LOCAL LOCKDOWN Village guards in Barangay Baclaran, Parañaque City, install an accordion-type barrier on Tuesday on a street that leads to a bridge which connects their city to Pasay City, where the more transmissible South Africa variant of the COVID-19 virus has been detected. The variant has also been detected in Parañaque, forcing the local lockdown. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

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Gunfight with narcs killed mayor–PNP

TACLOBAN CITY—The Philippine National Police says gunfire coming from the vehicle carrying Calbayog City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino triggered a shootout between his group and antinarcotics officers, killing him and five other men late on Monday afternoon. “It was not an ambush,” according to Police Lt. Col. Maria Bella Rentuaya, information officer of the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas. —STORY BY JOEY A. GABIETA

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Towns around Taal brace for disaster

Local government and disaster response officials in towns surrounding Taal Volcano in Batangas have drawn up evacuation plans after the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Tuesday raised the alert status on the volcano to Level 2, indicating increasing unrest. Phivolcs warned that magmatic activity beneath the volcano “may or may not” lead to an eruption. —STORY BY DELFIN T. MALLARI JR. AND JHESSET O. ENANO

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Killings show PNP abuse of warrants, Lawyer say

By Marlon Ramos and Krixia Subingsubing

The Supreme Court should come out with clear guidelines for judges in issuing search warrants following what Vice President Leni Robredo has condemned as the “massacre” of nine activists in simultaneous police operations in provinces near Manila recently, a group of lawyers said on Tuesday.

Antonio La Viña, dean of Ateneo de Manila University’s School of Government, lamented that such court orders have been used as “death warrants” against members of militant organizations.

“I call on judges to be careful because the search and arrest warrants are also becoming ‘death warrants,’ which is a violation of the Bill of Rights,” La Viña said at a press briefing.

Human rights and activist groups questioned the police practice of getting warrants from courts outside the jurisdiction of their targets, which had led to killings, the latest on Sunday in the Calabarzon region, which the police explained had resulted from resistance by the victims.

Public Interest Law Center lawyer Kristina Conti said that while her group was considering legal remedies against the abuse of a Supreme Court circular that allowed courts in Metro Manila to issue search warrants in places outside the national capital, its main call was for the police to “stick to the rules and apply with the court of jurisdiction.”

“Our main point is that judges should also be circumspect as to their appreciation of witnesses who might not be telling the truth. In relation to venue and applying specifically, take in consideration how and why a witness in an illegal possession case in Bacolod, for example, [could] be present in Quezon City,” she explained.

Even before this, critics have been sounding the alarm against Supreme Court Circular No. 3-8-2-SC, saying that the search warrants issued by Metro Manila judges were being “weaponized” to target critics of the government.

Sunday’s raids were against several members of militant organizations Bayan, Karapatan and Kilusang Mayo Uno. The police had obtained warrants to search for firearms and explosives issued by Manila Vice Executive Judge Jose Lorenzo dela Rosa and Branch 174 Judge Jason Zapanta.

But Brig. Gen. Ildebrandi Usana, spokesperson for the Philippine National Police, on Tuesday said the warrants from the different courts were “in strict compliance with standard legal procedures.”

‘Based on verified facts’

“It was based on verified facts and not on mere membership or affiliation with any organization (of those who were targeted),” Usana said.

According to documents provided by Karapatan, Dela Rosa issued at least three warrants allowing police to search the homes of Bayan-Cavite spokesperson Emmanuel Asuncion, Bayan-Laguna spokesperson Elizabeth Camoral and labor leader Esteban Mendoza.

Asuncion was killed at his home office in Dasmariñas City, Cavite, about an hour away from his main residence in Rosario where raiders said they found a .45-caliber pistol.

Camoral and Mendoza were arrested for alleged possession of one hand grenade.

Dela Rosa also issued a warrant used in the December police operation on Panay Island that led to the killing of nine members of the Tumandok indigenous community which opposed a dam project.

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said the police “can now simply allege that they are in possession of such [weapons] and that would be enough for the judge to issue a warrant against you.”

‘We’re human, too’

An activist who was staying with Asuncion and his wife, Liezel, said he heard the Bayan spokesperson shout, “We’re human, too” moments before he heard multiple gunshots.

The 27-year-old activist, who requested not to be identified for his safety, said loud knocks woke them up around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday.

“When I went down to get my phone, the police were already inside,” he told the Inquirer by phone.

He said he repeatedly asked to see the warrant but the officers refused. After a few minutes, several of them led him out of the house, followed by Liezel shortly after.

“(Liezel) kept telling them to bring Kuya Manny outside because he’d oblige [to an arrest] anyway. Then I heard Kuya Manny shout something, ‘We’re human, too’ before the shots rang out from the second floor. I don’t recall anymore how many [shots] but there were a lot,” the activist said.

He said officers later told Liezel to sign a blank evidence report, “which meant they didn’t find anything” at the Dasmariñas home office where their search warrant was for a hand grenade.

Sunday’s raid in Dasmariñas was one of the 24 separately carried out raids across Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal by the police.

Activists of varied causes

On Tuesday, Karapatan identified four of the nine who were killed—brothers Abner and Edward Esto, members of an urban poor group in Rodriguez, Rizal; and cousins Puroy and Randy dela Cruz, members of the Dumagat indigenous people in Tanay, Rizal, and the environmental group Protect Sierra Madre.

“There is no other way to describe this: It was a massacre,” Robredo said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We call for an independent and impartial investigation [into the raids] to ensure that the perpetrators will be brought to justice,” she added.

But presidential spokesperson Harry Roque chided Robredo for making such allegations.

“If she personally saw the events, she should provide evidence. By her words, it’s as if she saw with her own two eyes what had happened. If she can’t provide evidence, it’s an offense, she could be sued,” Roque said. —WITH REPORTS FROM JEROME ANING, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE, MARICAR CINCO AND DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.

Editorial

All in the family?

The footage showing instances of Marichu Mauro manhandling the maid was clear and, in current parlance, cringe-worthy. But in a statement and in TV interviews, Mauro cried betrayal by her home office, citing unexamined 'dynamics' and saying that the hearing panel of the Department of Foreign Affairs had committed 'heavy deficiencies' and considered 'the explanation and contextualization of what actually transpired' of no consequence. The weary observer gawking at the footage would wonder what context was appropriate to deem the inflicted violence permissible and put the envoy—'a fine diplomat,' per Foreign Secretary Teddyboy Locsin—well within legal and moral parameters to behave in the manner she did.

Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net