Swift and outright dismissal of cases against journalist Salem sorely discredits the state and its red-tagging

Swift and outright dismissal of cases against journalist Salem sorely discredits the state and its red-tagging

(Photograb from Manilatoday.net)

The Public Interest Law Center (PILC) hails the Order of Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Judge Monique A. Quisumbing-Ignacio of Branch 209 dismissing the charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against journalist Lady Ann Salem and labor union organizer Rodrigo Esparago. In an Order dated February 5, 2021, the Mandaluyong City court declared that the search warrant used to enter their condominium unit is null and void, hence the firearms and explosives cannot be used as evidence against Salem and Esparago.

Now that there is no admissible evidence against them, Salem and Esparago are expected to be released from detention soon.

Salem through her counsel the Public Interest Law Center in January moved to quash the search warrant, suppress the evidence and declare the seized items inadmissible, citing the preposterous circumstances and basis upon which the search warrant was issued. Most points in the 30-page motion was sustained by Judge Quisumbing-Ignacio of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 209 in her scrutiny of the records of the case.

The decision of Judge Quisumbing-Ignacio echoes issues raised by the defense with regard to material inconsistencies in the application for a search warrant, and protocol and rights violations during the implementation of the issued warrant. The warrant issued by Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert was quashed or nullified by Judge Ignacio, with a stern conclusion that there was no probable cause to issue it in the first place.

Arrests made on the basis of warrants issued by the Judge Burgos-Villavert – of five others, on three other occasions – which are also based on the same surveillance records, are likewise put into question. Police had claimed that the seven activists, collectively called the Human Rights Day 7, were involved in a gun-running syndicate.

The dismissal of charges clearly demolishes the Duterte government’s vilification and red-tagging campaign against the Human Rights Day 7. It is a severe blow to the NTF-ELCAC, which claimed the arrests as a victory in the anti-insurgency campaign. The first blow was their failure to assert this in court: there was no crime to file about it, meaning, it had no legal impact. The nail in the coffin is the dismissal of the cases, exposing not just faulty police work but vicious political persecution.

(PRESS RELEASE)