Tacloban court dismisses 2 DBSN petitions vs search warrant
CEBU CITY – A Tacloban City court has dismissed two petitions seeking to invalidate the search warrant it issued against the site where a controversial chicken breeder farm is located.
DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources-Eastern Visayas personnel collect water and soil samples from a controversial chicken breeder farm in Palompon, Leyte on January 21. (Contributed photo)
The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 45 of Tacloban City dismissed the petitions filed by Palompon, Leyte Mayor Ramon Oñate that also sought to suppress the evidence obtained by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to support allegations of environmental law violations against DBSN Farms Agriventures Corp.
DBSN Farms is owned by the family of Oñate.
“Both the motion to Quash Search Warrant and to Suppress Evidence Illegally Obtained filed on January 19, 2024 and the Supplemental Motion to Quash Search Warrant and to Suppress Evidence filed on January 25, 2024 are denied for lack of merit,” Executive Judge Georgina Uy Perez said in her 16-page decision issued on February 2.
The court’s decision was lauded by Lloyd Surigao, a legal counsel of residents of Barangay San Joaquin in Palompon who have taken Oñate to court over DBSN’s alleged dumping of chicken and other solid wastes that allegedly polluted the municipality’s water sources.
“This is another victory for the victims of DBSN’s illegal activities. The court was not deceived by Mayor Oñate’s attempt to cover-up the environmental transgressions of DBSN,” Surigao, an environment warrior, said in a statement.
Surigao asked Oñate to explain why some waste materials were found buried inside a protected area. “You no longer have a legal cover to escape the illegal activities of your poultry farm,” said Surigao.
The court rebuffed Oñate’s argument that the Palompon Watershed Forest Reserve (PWFR) is not a protected area.
“The argument of the respondent that an act of Congress is necessary for the PWFR to be considered as a protected area, fails to impress this court,” it said.
The court likewise rejected Oñate’s claim that his right against unreasonable searches and seizures was violated when it issued the 10-day search warrant on January 16 allowing the DENR to excavate 30 sites inside the PWFR where chicken and other solid wastes have reportedly been dumped by DBSN.
The court said the issuance of the search warrant was made after a finding of probable cause for violation of Section 18 of Republic Act 11038, otherwise known as the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018.
The court noted that Oñate did not dispute and even acknowledged that Lot 5150 where the DBSN poultry farm is located is within the PWFR where the dumping, throwing and use of any toxic chemical, noxious, or poisonous substance or non-biodegradable material, untreated sewage or animal waste or products whether in liquid, solid or gas state, including pesticides and other hazardous substances detrimental to the protected area, or to the plants and animals or inhabitants are prohibited under existing laws.
“Witnesses (were) able to establish that there were dumping and throwing of chicken parts, chicken droppings, intestines, feathers, dead chickens, large blue plastic drums, medicine bottles, plastic bags with contents and even expired canned goods on certain identified portions of Lot 5150, which is within the PWFR, a protected area,” it pointed out.
The court maintained that “there is no factual and legal basis” for it to invalidate or quash the search warrant it issued. It also dismissed Oñate’s argument that the search warrant was irregularly implemented as it noted that the areas that were excavated were among those identified in the warrant, and that the DENR teams that implemented the court order submitted an itemized list of the evidence that were obtained from the excavations.