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.
Factory of warrants ? Sinas points Makabayan bloc to judiciary
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CPJ, RSF call for release of detained journalist
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(Photo courtesy of Free Lady Ann Salem Network)
On December 10, authorities arrested Salem in her home in Mandaluyong. Salem is an editor of alternative media Manila Today and a member of Tudla Productions.
She also serves as a communications officer of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television.
“Reporters Without Borders demands the immediate and unconditional release of Lady Ann Salem, a Manila-based alternative journalist who was arrested on a firearms charge at the end of a raid on her home,” RSF said in a statement dated December 15.
RSF is an international non-profit organization that safeguards the right to freedom of information.