The two witnesses testified that no “Carlos De Dios” had lived in the barangay where the three accused were arrested.
MANILA — Lawyers of detained peace consultant Vicente Ladlad exposed what they call a ghost witness that led to his and his companion’s arrest on November 7, 2018.
At the hearing of the illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges against Ladlad and spouses Alberto and Virginia Villamor before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 93 last July 14, lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center exposed a reported fictitious informant that the prosecution and police used to justify their arrest.
Rachel Pastores and Carlos Montemayor Jr. of the PILC presented the local barangay secretary and a former homeowners association president to testify that certain “Carlos De Dios”— the reported informant used by the police to secure the warrant— is manufactured.
The two witnesses testified that no “Carlos De Dios” had lived in the barangay where the three accused were arrested.
Judicial affidavits submitted to the court showed that barangay records from the time of the raid at the Villamors’ apartment confirmed that no such individual ever resided at the compound in San Bartolome, Quezon City.
The PILC lawyers are thankful to the witnesses.
“It was hard to find a witness, especially in this case, when the implementation of the search warrant is controlled by the police in the whole area,” said the lawyers in a message to Bulatlat.
They also added that there is a factor of intimidation, given that the police are the complainants in the cases of Ladlad and the Villamor couple.
“When the search warrant was implemented, neighbors reported that the whole street and the whole subdivision were filled by police officers,” they added. “Even if there were bystanders who watched the arrest, they hesitate to testify and intervene.”
Ladlad’s wife Fides Lim, also spokesperson of Kapatid, said in a statement, “This ‘Carlos De Dios’ is a phantom informant manufactured to justify a lawless raid, similar to the fake basurero (garbage collector) fabricated by police in the case against activists Alexander and Winona Birondo—another Villavert case that the court completely threw out.”
“Even if the prosecution tries to suddenly conjure up a flesh-and-blood individual under this name at the eleventh hour, it will not change the fact that barangay records prove no such resident ever existed when the warrant was sought,” Lim said. “The entire case rests on a poisoned tree rooted in deliberate perjury, making their evidence legally inadmissible.”
The arrest and continuing prosecution of the peace consultant is a violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by the Philippine government and the NDFP Negotiating Panel in February 1995.
The agreement read, “Immunity guarantees shall mean that all duly accredited persons are guaranteed immunity from surveillance, harassment, search, arrest, detention, prosecution and interrogation or any other similar punitive actions due to any involvement or participation in the peace negotiations.”
Read: Arrest of NDFP consultant ‘grave violation’ of peace agreement
In 2019, a police officer admitted in court that irregularities in the standard operating procedures were committed in the arrest of Ladlad and Villamors. The political prisoners also suffer from existing medical conditions prior to the arrest.
Ladlad and Villamors are among the last seven remaining detainees out of 76 individuals arrested by Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert — an executive judge known for issuing a series of “defective” search warrants between 2018 and 2020 for the coordinated police and military operations against activists and community organizers.
Kapatid tracked that the 69 out of 76 arrested have been acquitted or had their cases dismissed due to defective warrants and irregularities in enforcing the search warrant. Among the most prominent cases is that of activists Reina Mae Nasino, Ram Carlo Bautista, and Alma Moran, arrested in a November 2019 raid in Manila.
In 2023, the Supreme Court affirmed the voiding of the Villavert-issued warrant against Nasino and her co-accused, affirming the decision of the Court of Appeals in finding that the warrants lacked specificity of place to be searched and that the questions asked in the depositions were merely a “rehash of the contents of the application itself and the affidavits attached”, thus failing to establish the existence of probable cause.
Kapatid underscores the disparity in the justice system: political prisoners suffer harsh and prolonged detention along with ordinary persons deprived of liberty (PDL), while influential figures and those in power receive lenient consideration.
Read: Double standards in the Philippine’s justice system
“While politicians like Senator Rodante Marcoleta immediately receive specialized medical treatment and comfortable accommodations upon arrest, ordinary detainees including political prisoners are denied basic, timely medical attention. And if ever they are brought to a hospital, they are placed in handcuffs even in bed although they are too sick to even sit up,” Lim added.
Moreover, the health conditions of the political prisoners exacerbate in more than seven years of imprisonment. Ladlad, now 76, has been diagnosed with asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in “acute exacerbation”, experiencing breathing difficulties that prevent him from walking for more than ten minutes. Virginia Villamor, 75, can no longer walk without assistance, while her husband Alberto, 72, suffers from diabetes.
“Our imprisoned loved ones are growing increasingly ill under the weight of fabricated charges while the powerful enjoy special privileges and hospital suites despite facing real plunder cases,” Lim said. “We urge RTC Branch 93 to uphold the fundamental right to due process, dismiss this case built entirely on a web of falsehoods, and finally put an end to this eight-year nightmare.” (AMU, RVO)
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