At the height of the December 1989 coup d’etat staged against the
government, the members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement-Soldiers
of the Filipino People (RAM-SFP) bombarded various establishments and
military camps in Metro Manila with their “tora-tora” planes and took
over the Villamor Air Base, the Headquarters of the Philippine Army, the
Army Operations Center, the government television station, and the
Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan.
The accused in this case
was charged with the crime of illegal possession of ammunition and
explosives in furtherance of rebellion.
According to the military
officers involved, the Intelligence Division of the National Capital
Region Defense Command conducted a surveillance of a European automobile
sales office along EDSA pursuant to an intelligence report that said
establishment was being used as a communication command post by the
RAM-SFP.
However, when they neared the establishment, they were attacked
and fired upon by a group of men. This resulted in the subsequent raid
of the sales office, wherein the military officers discovered and
confiscated six cartons of M-16 ammunition, five bundles of C-4
dynamites, M-shells of different calibers, and “Molotov” bombs inside
one of the offices belonging to a certain Colonel.
The officer who
first entered the building alleged that he saw the accused inside the
office of the Colonel holding a C-4 while suspiciously peeping through
the door. The accused was arrested and was made to sign an inventory of
the explosives and ammunition confiscated by the raiding team.
The
team, however, failed to secure a search warrant prior to the raid.
They attributed this failure to the disorderly circumstances at the
time, i.e., the attack of the nearby Camp Aguinaldo by rebel forces with
the simultaneous firing within the vicinity of the sales office,
coupled with the fact that the courts were consequently closed.
In
his defense, the accused gave an entirely different version of what
transpired. He claimed that he worked as a “boy” for the Colonel and was
tasked to guard his office. When the raiding team arrived, he was not
in the office but rather in his nipa house, which was adjacent to the
building. He was ordered to get out of his house and was made to lie on
the ground face down. He averred that he knew nothing about the
explosives, which were already there when he was ordered to get up.
The
trial court found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt. On appeal, one of
the issues tackled by the Supreme Court was whether there was a valid
search and seizure in this case. Answering in the affirmative, the High
Court held -
Under the foregoing circumstances, it is our considered
opinion that the instant case falls under one of the exceptions to the
prohibition against a warrantless search. In the first place, the
military operatives, taking into account the facts obtaining in this
case, had reasonable ground to believe that a crime was being committed.
There was consequently more than sufficient probable cause to warrant
their action. Furthermore, under the situation then prevailing, the
raiding team had no opportunity to apply for and secure a search warrant
from the courts. The trial judge himself manifested… when the raid was
conducted, his court was closed. Under such urgency and exigency of the
moment, a search warrant could lawfully be dispensed with (People of the
Philippines v. De Gracia, G.R. Nos. 102009-10, 6 July 1994, J.
Regalado).
source: Manila Times' Column of Benchpress
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