Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez said the issuance of search warrants by trial courts “is judicial in nature.”

“The issuance of search warrants by the judges and their service or implementation of by law enforcers are two different acts,” said Marquez in a report to Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta dated last March 12.

Marquez pointed out that since the issuance of search warrants “is judicial in nature… judicial remedies are available to those aggrieved by their issuance.”

“Any action at this time on their issuance may preempt any judicial recourse any party may take,” he stressed.

Marquez, whose office supervises lower courts for the SC, was directed by Peralta to submit a report on the issuance of warrants by the Manila regional trial courts (RTCs) and served by the police and the military last March 7 in South Luzon provinces.

The joint police-military operations in serving the search warrants resulted in the death of nine activists who were suspected of links to communist rebels.

In his report to Peralta, Marquez said that last March 1 the Manila RTC received a total of 63 applications for search warrants which were intended to be served in Region 4A, the South Luzon provinces.

Both the Manila and Quezon City RTCs, through their executive and vice executive judges, have been authorized by the SC to act on applications for search warrants, outside their jurisdictions, filed by the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation, among other law enforcement agencies.

He said the executive judge of Manila asked permission and was granted to distribute the 63 applications to his three vice executive judges.

He said the 63 applications were heard by the four judges and after hearings, 42 were granted and 19 were denied with two applications withdrawn.

In the Antipolo City RTC, Marquez said that nine applications were filed. Four applications were granted, four were denied, and one remained pending.

“It appeared that the 42 search warrants obtained in Manila, plus the four from Antipolo, were served simultaneously on 7 March2021. From news reports, it can be gleaned that this resulted in the deaths of nine, and the arrest of six individuals,” he said.