THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) has acquitted Rodolfo "Ka Bilog" Salas, former Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chairman and New People's Army (NPA) commander, of illegal possession of firearms.
The court stated that the warrantless search conducted by authorities in 2020 inside his house was illegal.
"The search conducted is clearly in violation of the constitutional right of the accused against unreasonable search and seizure. As a consequence, the firearm and ammunition confiscated from the accused are inadmissible as evidence in court applying the exclusionary rule Article III Section 3(2) for being fruit of the poisonous tree," said Angeles City RTC Branch 58 Judge Ramon Corazon Blanco in a decision dated July 1 but served to Salas only on Friday, August 6.
On February 18, 2020, Salas was arrested by virtue of an arrest warrant issued in 2019 by the Manila RTC.
This is in connection with a murder case alleging a mass grave in Leyte of victims of the so-called purge of communists.
The warrants were issued against Salas, CPP founder Jose Maria "Joma" Sison, National Democratic Front (NDF) senior adviser Luis Jalandoni and others.
Salas was charged with a new case of illegal possession of firearms after police allegedly found a pistol and ammunition in plain view inside his house when he was arrested.
In March 2020, Supreme Court justices granted Salas bail for the murder case that is still pending in Manila.
The illegal possession case was won on demurrer by Salas' lawyers, the Free Legal Assistance Group (Flag).
With this, Salas needed to present evidence as the judge said "the prosecution's case has no leg to stand on."
Because they had no search warrant, the three arresting officers claimed that they saw a handgun and ammunition in plain view on the computer table inside Salas' house.
But during trial, the policemen had conflicting statements regarding the locations of the gun and ammunition – first on the computer table, then in the drawer of the computer table, then on the filing cabinet near the computer table.
The barangay official, who acted as witness to the executions of the warrant, testified that he stood by the door of the house of Salas for 30 minutes.
That statement was contrary to the police's claim that the barangay official was inside the living room the whole time.
The barangay official also said he saw the gun and ammunition only when he was told to come near the table and sign a document.
The judge said the pistol was seized in an illegal manner.
"Lingering doubts now arise if they indeed saw the confiscated items in plain view or a product of a deliberate, intentional and meticulous search, thus violating the constitutional right of the accused against unreasonable search and seizure making the seized evidence proverbial fruit of the poisonous tree," the judge said.