Arrested development

Tonyo Cruz The Philippine Bar Association this week said it is concerned that certain courts have become “warrant factories”. While the country’s largest voluntary lawyers’ group did not specify the particular courts, its statement indirectly referred to the mass arrest on Human Rights Day of six labor organizers and a journalist. Press reports said Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos Villavert of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 89 issued the warrants against labor organizers Dennise Velasco, Rodrigo Esparago, Romina Astudillo, Mark Ryan Cruz, Joel Demate, and Jaymie Gregorio Jr., and journalist Lady Ann Salem. They were arrested on December 10, in separate police operations where law enforcers searched their homes and claimed to have found bombs and explosives.