Kadamay, an urban poor group, filed a complaint against Bulacan police chief, three other cops, and eight unidentified individuals who confiscated the copies of the Pinoy Weekly newspaper last July.
In the 18-page complaint filed to the Office of the Ombudsman, Kadamay accused those involved of robbery, gross misconduct, and “other related administrative charges.”
Kadamay members Marilou Iligan, Lea Maralit, Elizabeth Guerrero, and Eufemia Domingo claimed the police conducted a baseless and forced warrantless search in Villa Lois housing site in Pandi, Bulacan.
“None of the grounds for warrantless search and seizure also attended the incident. The warrantless search was not incidental to a lawful arrest. In fact, no arrest was even made at the time of the warrantless search and seizure,” the complaint read.
“The Pinoy Weekly magazines were not in plain view because the respondents had to force the complainants to open the office where they are being kept. The respondents cannot claim that we consented to a warrantless search because no such consent was voluntarily given.”
The complainants also argued that the publication, dissemination and possession of Pinoy Weekly magazines “are a legitimate exercise of press freedom, to which our fundamental right to information, as readers of the publication, is inextricably linked.”
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“Even as the magazines present views critical of the government, they do not incite a serious and imminent threat to national security or public order that the government has the right to prevent. This unlawful taking constitutes a deprivation of the constitutional right to property without due process of law,” the complainants said.
The Kadamay members also claimed they were coerced to create a falsified document to agree with the police officers’ “fictitious” narrative.
“For committing acts that are patently illegal, irregular, immoral and devoid of justification, the respondents should be held administratively liable,” the complaint read.
The Kadamay group also asked Ombudsman Samuel Martires to impose a preventive suspension without pay and other benefits on the police officers.
The four policemen named respondents in the complaint were Region 3 Director Police Brigadier General Rhodel Sermonia; Director of Bulacan Provincial Police Office Police Colonel Lawrence Bonifacio Cajipe; Acting Chief of Police of Pandi, Bulacan Police Captain Jun Javier; and Pandi Police Station chief Police Lieutenant Gerardo Espiritu.