1987 PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION •Requisites for valid search warrant or
ARTICLE 3, SECTION 2 warrant of arrest
1. It must be issued upon probable cause; 2. The probable cause must be determined •Article 3, Section 2. personally by the judge himself; The right of the people to be secure in their 3. Such determination of the existence of persons, houses, papers, and effects against probable cause must be made after unreasonable searches and seizures of examination by the judge of the complainant whatever nature and for any purpose shall be and the witnesses he may produce. inviolable, and no search warrant or warrant of arrest shall be issue except upon probable •Meaning of probable cause cause to be determined personally by the - Facts and circumstances antecedent to the judge after examination under oath or issuance of a warrant sufficient in themselves affirmation of the complainant and the to induce a cautious man to rely upon them witnesses he may produce, and particularly and act in pursuance thereof. describing the place to be search and the - It presupposes the introduction of competent persons or things to be seized. proof that party against whom a warrant is sought to be issued has performed particular •Meaning of search warrant acts, or committed specific omissions, violating It is an order in writing, issued in the name of a given provision of our criminal laws. the People of the Philippines, signed by a judge and directing to a peace officers, •Sufficiency of affidavit upon which warrant Commanding him to search for a certain is based property and bring it before the court. 1. Test of sufficiency affidavit. -Application sworn to; •Meaning of warrant of arrest -affiant made his own personal Command to arrest a person designated, i.e., investigation; to take him to custody in order that he may be - testified in his own knowledge bound to answer for the commission of an *The affidavit of the affiant was offense. considered sufficient for he could be liable for perjury if the facts turned out to be not as •Scope of the protection stated under oath. 1. Person-The protection applies to everybody, to citizens as well as aliens in the Philippines, 2. Basis of affidavit- It must be based on whether accused of crime or not. personal knowledge or information. It is Corporations are also entitled to the insufficient if it is based on mere information protection. from other people, or belief, or on mere 2. Houses-The protection is not limited to hearsay dwelling houses but extends to a garage, warehouse, shop, store, office, and even a •Sufficiency of description safety deposit vault. 1. Place-A description of the place to be It does not extend, however, to the open searched is sufficient if the officer with search spaces and fields belonging to one. warrant can, with reasonable effort, ascertain 3. Papers and effect-They include sealed and identify the place intended letters and package in the email which may be Example: building No. 123 Rizal Avenue, opened and examined only in pursuance of a Manila valid search warrant. 2. Person- A warrant of arrest for the apprehension of an unnamed party upon whom it is to be served is void except in those cases •When arrest be made without warrant where it contains a description of the person or 1. When, in the presence of a peace officer, such as will enable the officer to identify the the person to be arrested has committed, is accused actually committing, or is attempting to commit Example: an offense; John Doe had gambling apparatus in his 2. When an offense has in fact just been possession in the building occupied by him at committed and has personal knowledge of 124 Calle Arzobispo, City of Manila. facts indicating that the person to be arrested has committed it. 3. Property-The description of the property is 3. When the person to be arrested is a prisoner required to be specific only in so far as the who have escaped from the penal circumstances will ordinarily allow. establishment or temporarily confined while his -It has been held that where by the case is pending, or has escaped while being nature of the property to be seized, the transferred from one confinement to another. description must be rather general.
•Right against unreasonable search and
1987 PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION seizure 1. Proper Party to invoke right- It can only be ARTICLE 3, SECTION 3 contested by the party whose personal rights were involved. •Section 3.(1) The privacy of communication 2. Right subject to waiver- Search and seizure and correspondence shall be inviolable except without warrant cannot be reasonable if there upon lawful order of the court, or when public is a consent by the Party involved. safety or order requires otherwise as prescribed by law •When search and seizure may be made • (2) Any evidence obtained in violation of without warrant this or the preceding section shall be 1. Where there is consent or waiver; inadmissible for any purpose in any 2. Where search is an incident to a lawful proceeding. arrest; 3. Where, without a search warrant, the •Meaning of right to privacy possession of articles prohibited by law is • Defined as the right to be left alone. disclosed to a plain view or is open to eye and • The Right of the person to be free from hand; undesired publicity, or disclosure. 4. In case of contraband or forfeited goods • The Right to live without unwarranted being transported by ship, automobiles, or interference by the public in matters with which other vehicles, where the officer making it has public is not necessarily concerned. reasonable cause for believing that the latter Private Citizen vs. Public Figure contains them, in view of the difficult attendant to securing a search warrant. •Basis and purpose of the right 5. As an incident of inspection, supervision and •1. Right existing in the state of nature regulation in the exercise of police power such -Equate with the right to live as inspection of restaurant by health officers, of 2. Right designed to secure enjoyment of one’s factories by labor inspectors, etc. private life. 6. Routinely searches usually made at the *Celebrity border or at port of entry in the interest of national security and of the proper enforcement of customs and immigration laws. •Privacy Relationship with right against •Evidence illegally obtained unreasonable searches and seizures 1. Inadmissible-Any evidence obtained in violation of the Right against unreasonable 1. Aspect of right to be secure in one’s person search and seizure and the right to privacy and • The right of privacy compliments or communication and correspondence shall not implements the security of the citizen against be accepted in any judicial and administrative unreasonable searches and seizures. proceedings • Security in Malls or schools • Police Checkpoint 2. Reason -”The fruit of a poisonous tree doctrine” 2. Privacy of communication and - if the source (tree) of the evidence is correspondence tainted then anything gained ( the fruit) from it • Right to privacy is tainted as well. • Cover all intrusions or arbitrary interference into the private affairs of persons. -Crime cannot be solved by another • Persons, Houses, papers or effects crime. •Illustration : • A telephone conversation between two 3.Right of the owner (2) drug pushers secretly recorded by police -The owner of the record or article officers by tapping its wire without a court order seized be returned to him. is not acceptable as evidence in the court due -Unless those things are in themselves to the privacy of communication enshrined in prohibited or forbidden by law such as illegal the Philippine Constitution. drugs, unlicensed firearms, etc.
•Limitations on the right of privacy of
communications 1. Permissible interference a. Upon lawful order of the court -Requirements for the issuance of search warrant b. When Public Safety or order requires otherwise a prescribe by the law -Right to privacy is subject to Police power of the state