Families of political prisoners group Kapatid blasted the bids of Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert and Manila RTC Judge Jason Zapanta for higher judicial posts, citing their past issuances of questionable search warrants that resulted in the unlawful arrests and killings of activists.
Per the Judicial and Bar Council’s (JBC) list of nominees, Burgos-Villavert is applying for associate justice at either the Court of Appeals or Sandiganbayan, and Zapanta is aiming for the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals is responsible for reviewing all final decisions made by RTCs and other quasi-judicial agencies, while the Sandiganbayan deals with graft and corruption cases of public officials.
But these two judges’ current courts have been labeled “warrant factories” by groups like Kapatid due to the sheer number of these dubious warrants they've granted.
As presiding judge over Quezon City RTC Branch 89, Burgos-Villavert was responsible for granting search warrants that led to the arrest of 76 activists in total. Sixty-nine have since been acquitted, as the judge’s search warrants were eventually invalidated.
“The lives of at least 76 activists were grievously disrupted with the judicial imprimatur of Judge Burgos-Villavert’s warrant factory,” read Kapatid’s letter to the JBC dated June 5, opposing the judge’s promotion.
One of these search warrants allowed the police and military to launch a counter-insurgency raid at Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN)-Manila’s office in Tondo in November 2019. Three were arrested for illegal possession of firearms and explosives, which BAYAN claimed were planted during the operation.
During their detention, Reina Mae Nasino’s son, Baby River, succumbed to a pulmonary disease. The child was born with a low birth weight and then separated from his mother at only six weeks old.
The three were eventually cleared in July 2023 after the Court of Appeals voided the search warrants for failure to describe the locations to be searched.
“Burgos-Villavert’s inexcusable actions have resulted in unnecessary suffering and the loss of an innocent life, reflecting her moral unfitness to be a justice of the Court of Appeals,” said Kapatid.
Zapanta has his own share of anomalous search warrant issuances. In 2021, he and Manila RTC Judge Jose Lorenzo Dela Rosa, granted warrants that facilitated a series of raids in Rizal, Batangas, and Cavite, dubbed “Bloody Sunday,” leading to nine activists killed and six arrested.
Despite his hand in these bloody operations, Dela Rosa was elevated by former President Rodrigo Duterte to the appellate court in 2022.
Under Administrative Matter No. 21-06-08-SC, released June 29, 2021, the Supreme Court cut down Manila and Quezon City judges’ ability to authorize searches in areas beyond their jurisdiction after several groups condemned these raids’ blatant human rights violations. It also required the use of body-worn cameras for these operations.
These new provisions at least hoped to minimize the irregularities during these search and arrest operations, which Kapatid said were means to fabricate trumped-up charges.
In a resolution on August 9, 2023 regarding Nasino’s case, the high court also recognized the vitality of regulating the issuance of search warrants: that the judge must “make his own inquiry on the intent, and factual and legal justification for a search warrant.”
The two judges already underwent public interviews, as part of the selection process, on June 5. After the last batch of interviewees, the JBC will submit a shortlist of candidates to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who will appoint the new justices.
“Appointing Judge Burgos-Villavert and Judge Zapanta to a higher judicial position would not only perpetuate a grave miscarriage of justice but also erode public trust in our judicial institutions,” Kapatid said. ●
