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BY AYIN DREAM D. APLASCA
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Wednesday, august 2, 2017
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The “Death Warrant”
SO WHO is next in line?
News reports about the death of the Parojinogs are all over – newspapers, televisions, social media and radios. Ozamiz City mayor Reynaldo “Aldong” Parojinog was the third town mayor killed in a police operation under the President’s bloody war on drugs.
Issues blazed like fire questioning the process of police operations from issuing the warrants to disabling the closed-circuit TV cameras to power brownout.
Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan described the drug raids as “unrealistic” because the warrants were served past two in the morning. We always hear about search warrants served at dawn and resulted in the deaths of the persons being searched. What do the cases of Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte and Mayor Parojinog indicate? Too much of a chance? Do we really know what search warrants are?
Section 1, Rule 126 of the Rules of Court provides that a search warrant is an order in writing issued in the name of the People of the Philippines, signed by a judge and directed to a peace officer, commanding him to search for personal property described therein and bring it before the court.
It also provides that search warrants in general should be served in daytime. While it may be served anytime of the night, the issuing judge must so expressly specify this in the warrant. In a criminal process, search warrants are akin to a mode of discovery. It may also be a special and peculiar remedy which is extreme in nature.
Now what? Was the search of the Parojinogs valid and enjoyed the presumption of regularity?
Yes, for now, we presume regularity in this case. If there is anyone who will complain that something irregular happened, then an investigation will have to follow.
To be candid, it doesn’t matter if the script is poorly written. It doesn’t matter if it was unrealistic. It doesn’t matter if it was a coincidence. It doesn’t matter if was just an element of surprise. The raid last weekend only showed the seriousness of President Rodrigo Duterte in his battle against illegal drugs.
(Atty. Ayin Dream D. Aplasca practices her profession in Iloilo City. She may be reached thru ayindream.aplasca@gmail.com/PN)
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