Search warrant vs ex-cop linked to Davao killings quashed

A Manila court has quashed a search warrant issued against a former policeman implicated in the series of alleged summary executions in Davao City. In an order dated July 23, Judge William Simon Peralta of Manila Regional Trial Court branch 50 granted the appeal of retired SPO4 Bienvenido Laud to quash the search warrant issued last July 10. “After a careful consideration on the grounds alleged on the said urgent motion (to quash and to suppress illegally seized evidence), this Court is of the firm believe and so holds that the same is impressed with merit," the order said. Incidentally, it was also Peralta who issued the search warrant on the request of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP), which claimed that Davao courts were biased against them. The PNP-CIDG went to Manila courts after Davao Regional Trial Court branch 15 Judge Ridgway Tanjili turned down its application for a search warrant. Laud owns the Laud Compound in Barangay Ma-a, Davao City where police and officials of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) had unearthed what were believed to be the skeletal remains of the victims of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS). The CHR claimed the area was used by the DDS as dumping ground for its victims. Laud, through his lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre II, said Peralta erred in handing down the search warrant since the Manila court "has no territorial jurisdiction over the place where the alleged offense was committed." "The place of the commission of the offense being Davao City, the (Manila) court clearly had no jurisdiction to entertain any application for, much less issue the search warrant," Laud's appeal said. Laud also said the PNP-CIDG had failed to substantiate its claim that Davao courts were biased against them. Instead of accepting the imputation of bias by Davao courts, Aguirre said the Manila court "should have prodded and investigated (the CIDG) as to how he arrived at such patently gross observation which desecrated no less than the judges of Davao City." - GMANews.TV