EXPLAINER: How to address problem of search warrants vs activists
Mar 9, 2021 9:04 PM PHT
The Supreme Court is in the middle of intensifying public pressure for action to curb abuses by state agents, particularly the practice among judges who issue search warrants against activists that result in massive arrests and killings.
Just last Sunday, March 7, search warrants resulted in 9 killings all in a day in the Calabarzon area.
Progressive groups now call the issuing courts warrant factories because the recent crackdowns were authorized by the same judges.
For the Calabarzon killings and arrests, it was Manila First Vice Executive Judge Jose Lorenzo dela Rosa and Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 174 Judge Jason Zapanta who issued the search warrants.
'I am in favor of law and order. Unlike the people behind me, I am pro national security, actually, your honor, it's just that the law is too overbroad,' says Professor John Molo, son and grandson of uniformed officials