A Quezon City (QC) court has quashed the search warrants issued by another city court against two National Democratic Front (NDF) peace talks staff due to inconsistencies in a witness' statements.
QC Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 177 Judge Ferdinand Baylon issued a resolution dated August 13 quashing the search warrants issued in July 2019 by a QC RTC Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert against Alexander Birondo and Winona Birondo.
Baylon also resolved to suppress all evidence gathered during the service of the search warrants against the Birondos.
The Birondos were arrested and jailed for a now-dismissed obstruction of justice case, and then later, for supposed possession of firearms.
"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," Baylon said in his resolution.
Inconsistencies and Questions
In quashing the search warrants, Baylon found inconsistencies in the statements of the witness who identified himself as a garbage collector of the apartment the Birondos were staying in.
The witness claimed he saw an apparent gun and grenade inside the room of the Birondos when he looked through their window while he was cleaning. However, he did not mention the grenade in the latter part of his affidavit, which the court noticed he might have "forgotten about the existence of any grenade."
The witness was only able to recall the supposed existence of a grenade when he was reminded of it during his court testimony, which for Baylon, "appears to have been spoon fed to him."
"Essentially, what was relied upon was only the witness’ sworn statement, and no attempt to ask searching and probing questions was made insofar as the discovery of the grenade is concerned," Baylon said, referring to Villavert's issuance of search warrant.
"This lack of sufficient questioning regarding the grenade juxtaposed with the witness’ sworn statement and his testimony in court, leads this court to conclude that there is no basis for the issuance of SW No. 5898 (19)," he added, referring to one of the two search warrants.
Meanwhile, the other warrant was also quashed as Baylon stated the witness failed to describe the firearm he saw and to be seized—even by a simple description.
Further, Baylon said there was lack of evidence to establish probable cause that the firearm belonged to the Birondos as the witness stated he did not see the two in possession of it. In fact, he thought it "was a police officer" who was cleaning the gun when he once peeked into the Birondos' unit.
The court also questioned the "sudden appearance" of the witness, who only started the job in the same month of the issuance of arrest warrants against the Birondos.
In 2015, the Birondos were arrested, together with another peace consultant, but they were eventually released during the peace talks process in 2016.
In 2019, they were arrested again for obstruction of justice for supposedly intervening during a police operation against a wanted criminal. They were already detained at Camp Karingal for the said case when two search warrants were also served against them that led to their current detention, the Public Interest Law Center said.