CA affirms search warrant on Boy Bastos Web site

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals has affirmed the validity of the search warrant issued by the Muntinlupa RTC for the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate the alleged illegal activities of the administrator of the Web site www.boybastos.com. The Web site allegedly provided easy Internet access to pornographic materials and patronized the prostitution of women and children. In an 11-page decision penned by Associate Justice Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal, the CA’s Second Division dismissed the petition filed by Mark Verzo, administrator of the Web site, seeking to quash the search warrant on the ground of lack of probable cause. The appellate court said it found sufficient ground to charge Verzo for violation of Section 5 of Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. The CA said that the Muntinlupa RTC followed the prescribed procedure for the issuance of search warrant as the judge personally questioned NBI special investigator Roel Jovenir and his witnesses. “In the instant case after the conduct of the technical surveillance on the [Web site] www.boybastos.com which identified the petitioner as the [Web site’s] administrator, proper physical surveillance and investigation were thereafter conducted by special investigators and which led the latter to believe that petitioner caused the advertisement of various internet porn sites through www.boybastos.com," the CA said. Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Portia Aliño-Hormachuelos and Rosalinda Asuncion-Vicente. Verzo in his petition insisted that Muntinlupa RTC Branch 276 Judge Romulo Villanueva committed grave abuse of discretion in issuing the search warrant because he claimed Jovenir, who applied for it, has no personal knowledge of the facts upon which it was issued. He said the search warrant is invalid because the lower court failed to take the deposition of the applicant and his witnesses. Jovenir and Rosauro Dantis of the NBI-Anti Fraud and Computer Crimes Division investigated the operations of the Web site, which is based in Ayala, Alabang, Village in Muntinlupa City. Based on the NBI investigation, Jovenir filed an application for search warrant on September 7, 2007 to authorize the search and seizure of the property, articles and objects being used by the petitioner to operate the Web site. The lower court granted Jovenir’s application on the same day. To recall, Senator Loren Legarda urged authorities to shut down the Web site for allegedly providing Internet users, including minors, easy access to “extremely hardcore pornographic materials" of Filipino women and girls. - GMANews.TV