Illegal search

A  warrant is required before a law enforcer can validly search or seize the person, house, papers, or effects of an individual. Anything obtained without such warrant is inadmissible in evidence in any proceeding. One exception however is, when a warrantless search is an incident to a lawful arrest. This exception is explained in this case of Val, a Police Senior Inspector.

Sometime on July 10, 1996, a team of four policemen from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Central Police District led by SPO2 Tino was dispatched to arrest Val by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by the court against him for a case of kidnapping for ransom.

After surveillance of several places in Cavite, Bulacan and Caloocan, Tino and his team eventually proceeded to a boarding house in Barangay Culiat in Quezon City. The heavily armed arresting officers entered the place which was the boarding house of Val’s children and found Val sleeping. They roused Val from his sleep and pulled him out of the room, tied his hands and then put him under the care of Tino. The other police officers remained inside the room and ransacked the locked cabinet where they found a Charter Arms revolver bearing serial number 52315 with five pieces of live ammo.

Val was then brought to the police station for questioning. Upon verification at the Firearms and Explosive Division in Camp Crame it turned out that the firearm was not issued to Val but was licensed in the name of a private individual residing in Sampaloc, Manila. So Val was charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunitions.

After trial Val was convicted as charged by the trial with the seized firearms and ammunitions as well as the certification that it was not licensed in his name as the main evidence. This was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. Were the trial court and the CA correct?

No. The police officers may have a prior justification for the intrusion inside the boarding house of Val’s children for they were supposed to serve a warrant of arrest against him. However in this case, they did not just accidentally discover the firearm and ammunition, they actually searched for evidence against Val.

While a warrantless search may be justified as an incident to a lawful arrest, the seizure of evidence like dangerous weapons must be either on the person of the one arrested or within the area of his immediate control. The phrase “within the area of immediate control” means the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence. The purpose of allowing a warrantless search as an incident to a lawful arrest is to protect the arresting officer from being harmed by the person arrested, who might be armed with a concealed weapon, and to prevent the latter from destroying evidence within reach. A gun on the table or a drawer in front of the one who is arrested can be dangerous to the arresting officer as one concealed in his person. So it can be seized even without a warrant.

In this case however, the arresting officers served the warrant without any resistance from Val. They placed him immediately under their control by pulling him out of bed and bringing him out of the room with hands tied. The locked cabinet could no longer be considered as an “area within his immediate control” because there was no way for him to take any weapon or to destroy any evidence they could need against him. Thus the search exceeded the bounds of what may be considered as an incident to a lawful arrest and illegal as it is in violation of Val’s right against unreasonable search and seizure. Consequently the firearms and ammunitions obtained in violation of said right is inadmissible in evidence against him. Without the illegally seized firearm and ammunition, Val’s conviction cannot stand. There is simply no sufficient evidence to convict him beyond reasonable doubt. He should be acquitted (Valeroso vs. Court of Appeals and People, G. R. 164815, September 3, 2009).

Note: Books containing compilation of my articles on Labor Law and Criminal Law (Vols. I and II) are now available. Call tel. 7249445.

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