(Photo of Salem inside police vehicle on December 10, 2020 when human rights and paralegal workers “found” her after being tagged as missing for 12 hours following her arrest.)
The Office of Solicitor General (OSG) filed its appeal at the Supreme Court two weeks after it learned that it lost its petition for certiorari at the Court of Appeals (CA), asking to reopen the cases against Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem and Sandigang Manggagawa sa Quezon City labor organizer Rodrigo Esparago.
The SolGen’s petition for certiorari at the CA alleged that Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 209 Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio committed grave abuse of discretion for quashing the search warrants against Salem and Esparago that led to their release from jail after almost three months of incarceration. The SolGen’s petition at the CA also held Salem and Esparago as respondents, as the OSG sought the illegal possession of firearms and explosives cases against them be reopened at the trial court level.
At its Supreme Court appeal, the SolGen pursued its arguments at the CA level, holding that (1) the search warrants satisfied the requirement of specificity, (2) the search warrant should not be invalidated in its entirety if there are general descriptions, (3) the implementation of the search warrants is in accordance with the Rules of Court and (4) the inconsistent testimonies refer to minor and irrelevant details thus probable cause should be upheld.
The CA dismissal of the government’s petition upheld the trial court’s findings that (1) there was no particularity in the items to be seized such as the 1 phone and 1 laptop in the search warrant and their direct relation to the offense was not mentioned, (2) the police undertook a fishing expedition to seize and confiscate all laptops and phones in the premises (the police ended up seizing 3 laptops and 4 phones) and took other items not included in the search warrant such as 3 hard drives, 1 thumb drive and sling bags, and (3) false and inconsistent testimonies led to the reversal of the probable cause.
One of the fabrications of the police and their informant that Salem’s counsels pointed out was that they met, sold and delivered arms at the condominium unit where Salem and Esparago was arrested from May to October 2020. But Salem only moved to said unit in the last week of October 2020, making the police’s and informant’s claim impossible, said the CA.
Salem and Esparago’s Mandaluyong condominium unit was raided by police on December 10, 2020 at around 2am. Five others were arrested in simultaneous pre-dawn police raids that day in three other separate locations. They were then known as the Human Rights Day 7 or HRD7. Quezon City (QC) Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos Villavert issued the search warrants against the seven in QC, Manila and Mandaluyong. They were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, but the accused held the evidence was planted.
The police used the same witnesses and testimonies for applying for search warrants against the seven, which was why Salem’s counsel, the Public Interest Law Center in February this year called for the release of the four of the HRD7 who remain in jail, after the CA initially denied the government’s petition against Salem and Esparago.
Their arrest followed several others, stemming from pre-dawn police raids on the strength of search warrants issued by Villavert in activists’ and journalists’ homes and offices since 2019.
Similar quashal of warrants in other cases involving activists and where the accused decried planting of evidence followed Salem and Esparago’s release, among them warrants issued by VIllavert. In other search warrants by Villavert, the political prisoners were acquitted after undergoing trial, such as Esterlita Suaybaguio, couple Cora Agovida and Michael Tan Bartolome, and the Tondo trio of Reina Mae Nasino, Alma Moran and Ram Bautista.
“We don’t know yet if the search warrants against Salem and Esparago will be re-issued or will they be rearrested if the OSG wins the case because the government keeps losing this case so far,“ said human rights group Karapatan NCR.
In an interview with Manila Today, Karapatan NCR said the resolution of the case against Salem and Esparago at the trial court was one of the fastest, if not the fastest, among political persecution cases. The group said this also meant that the two’s time in jail was also among the shortest, if not the shortest among political prisoners, even including the one month they remained in jail after their cases were dismissed as the trial court made way for the prosecutor’s motion for reconsideration.
But the same cases against Salem and Esparago continue to this day.
Karapatan NCR said it was ironic that the “offended party” who keeps on appealing this case is the government, which has been using the people’s money and government resources in its continued pursuit of the fabricated cases against Salem and Esparago.
Timeline of the case against Salem and Esparago:
- December 10, 2020 – Salem and Esparago were arrested, they were incommunicado for 36 hours until their inquest on December 11 at 2pm and then incommunicado again for 5 days, held in Camp Bagong Diwa until they were brought to Camp Crame in Quezon City
- January 14, 2021 – supposedly the first hearing but was moved to February 15, because Salem and Esparago were placed in COVID-19 isolation for two weeks after being transferred to Mandaluyong City Jail and their lawyers were only able to gain access to them only a day before their hearing. The lawyers filed their motion to quash warrants, suppress evidence, declare inadmissible illegally seized items and to dismiss the case.
- February 5, 2021 – Mandaluyong RTC Branch 209 released an order granting Salem and Esparago’s motion and dismissed the cases against them.
- February 19, 2021 – Mandaluyong Office of the City Prosecutor filed its motion for reconsideration (MR).
- March 5, 2021 – Mandaluyong RTC Branch 209 denied OCP’s MR and ordered the release of Salem and Esparago.
- May 21, 2021 – OSG filed a petition for certiorari at the CA.
- January 27, 2023 – CA dismissed OSG’s petition for certiorari. Salem and Esparago found out about this on February 14.
- March 1, 2023 – OSG filed for an MR.
- August 29, 2023 – CA denied OSG’s MR; Salem and Esparago learned of this decision on the first week of September while the OSG said they received their copy on September 11.
- September 27, 2023 – The Supreme Court received the OSG’s September 25 appeal of CA dismissal of their petition.
On September 7, a day after learning that the government’s petition against her at the CA was denied, Salem posted on her Facebook account: “After two years at the CA, the government’s petition against Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio to reverse her dismissal of the charges against us (pursued under the new administration) is finally denied. Will it stop here? We’ll see.”
That post portended what came just a month and a week later.
“We are hopeful that we will again win – that truth and justice will prevail – and that such a victory may now mean something for other similar cases, especially for four of the Human Rights Day 7 who are still in jail: Joel Demate, Mark Ryan Cruz, Jaymie Gregorio and Romina Astudillo,” said Salem in a new post after learning of the government’s appeal at the SC.
