Complicit in crackdown? SC urged to probe QC judge ordering activists’ arrests

The Supreme Court (SC) has been prodded to investigate a Quezon City judge for churning out search warrants that have led to arrests of activists and government critics.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay made the call after the search warrants issued by Quezon City Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert against peace talks staff, Alexander Binondo and his wife Winona, have been quashed.

“Judge Villavert has already churned out search warrants and facilitated the arrests of at least 76 activists, human rights defenders, peace advocates, peasant leaders, and journalists because of the questwarrants she issued. She may not only be complicit in the police’s dangerous lies but also a willing instrument of the government’s deadly crackdown on dissent — which is a blatant insult to the independence and integrity of the judiciary,” she cited in a statement.

“The Supreme Court must investigate and hold Judge Villavert accountable for her travesty of justice by using our courts for judicial harassment and political persecution, along with other similar judges who have been involved in the issuance of questionable search warrants and their lying accomplices in the police,” she stated.

Meanwhile, the human rights group official expressed gratitude to Quezon City Judge Ferdinand Baylon for having issued the August 13 resolution that granted the motion of the couple to quash the search warrants that led to their arrest

“We laud Judge Baylon for his rigorous scrutiny in dismissing Villavert’s warrants in the case of the Birondos as we assert the call that the couple should be freed immediately,” Palabay said.

The couple are facing what Palabay claimed to be trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives as well as obstruction of justice.

“The Birondo couple were initially arrested for obstruction of justice in the morning of July 23, 2019, as the police claimed the couple prevented them from arresting a certain alias ‘Jet,’ whom the couple supposedly harbored in their apartment,” Palabay said.

“While the couple were brought to Camp Karingal, the police applied for a search warrant before Villavert, which she issued on the same day as they conducted a search at the couple’s apartment that night and recovered guns and a grenade,” she added.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)