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PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

THIRD DIVISION

[G.R. No. 191080 : November 21, 2011]

FREDRIK FELIX P. NOGALES, GIANCARLO P. NOGALES, ROGELIO P. NOGALES, MELINDA P. NOGALES, PRISCILA B. CABRERA, PHIL-PACIFIC OUTSOURCING SERVICES CORPORATION AND 3 X 8 INTERNET, REPRESENTED BY ITS PROPRIETOR MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER A. NOGALES, PETITIONERS, VS. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES AND PRESIDING JUDGE TITA BUGHAO ALISUAG, BRANCH 1, REGIONAL TRIAL COURT, MANILA, RESPONDENTS.

D E C I S I O N


MENDOZA, J.:

At bench is a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court filed by petitioners Fredrik Felix P. Nogales, Giancarlo P. Nogales, Rogelio P. Nogales, Melinda P. Nogales, Priscila B. Cabrera, Phil-Pacific Outsourcing Services Corp. and 3 x 8 Internet, represented by its proprietor Michael Christopher A. Nogales (petitioners) against respondents People of the Philippines and Presiding Judge Tita Bughao Alisuag (Judge Alisuag) of Branch 1, Regional Trial Court, Manila (RTC).

The petition challenges the August 19, 2009 Decision1 of the Court of Appeals (CA), in CA-G.R. SP No. 105968, which affirmed with modification the August 6, 2008 Order2 of Judge Alisuag of the RTC; and its January 25, 2010 Resolution,3 which denied petitioners’ motion for reconsideration.

THE FACTS:

On July 30, 2007, Special Investigator Garry Meñez (SI Meñez) of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) applied for a search warrant before the RTC to authorize him and his fellow NBI agents or any peace officer to search the premises of petitioner Phil-Pacific Outsourcing Services Corporation (Phil-Pacific) and to seize/confiscate and take into custody the items/articles/objects enumerated in his application.  The sworn application, docketed as Search Warrant Proceedings No. 07-11685,4 partially reads:

SWORN APPLICATION FOR A SEARCH WARRANT

x x x  x x x  x x x

That he has been informed, verily believes and personally verified that JUN NICOLAS, LOREN NUESTRA, FREDRICK FELIX P. NOGALES, MELINDA P. NOGALES, PRISCILA B. CABRERA and/or occupants PHIL-PACIFIC OUTSOURCING SERVICES CORP. located at Mezzanine Flr., Glorietta De Manila Building, 776 San Sebastian St., University Belt, Manila have in their possession/control and are concealed in the above-mentioned premises various material[s] used in the creation and selling of pornographic internet website, to wit:

  1. Computer Sets
  2. Television Sets
  3. Internet Servers
  4. Fax Machines
  5. Pornographic Films and other Pornographic Materials
  6. Web Cameras
  7. Telephone Sets
  8. Photocopying Machines
  9. List of clients and
  10. Other tools and materials used or intended to be used in the commission of the crime.

The application for Search Warrant No. 07-11685 of SI Meñez was acted upon by Judge Alisuag.  On August 3, 2007, a hearing was conducted wherein Judge Alisuag personally examined SI Meñez and two other witnesses in the form of searching questions and their answers thereto were duly recorded by the court.  The witnesses’ affidavits were also submitted and marked as supporting evidence to the application for the issuance of a search warrant.  On the same date of the hearing, the application was granted and the corresponding Search Warrant,5 issued.  The said search warrant is quoted as follows:

SEARCH WARRANT

TO:   ANY PEACE OFFICER

It appearing to the satisfaction of the undersigned, after examining under oath applicant SI III GARY I. MEÑEZ of the Special Task Force Division, National Bureau of Investigation, and his witnesses, ISABEL CORTEZ y ANDRADE of 167 5th Avenue, Caloocan City and MARK ANTHONY C. SEBASTIAN of No. 32 Arlegui Street, San Miguel Quiapo, Manila that there are good reasons to believe that VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 201 OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE, AS AMENDED IN RELATION TO R.A. 8792 (ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ACT) has been committed and that JUN NICOLAS, LOREN NUESTRA, FREDERICK (sic) FELIX P. NOGALES, GIAN CARLO P. NOGALES, ROGELIO P. NOGALES, MELINDA P. NOGALES, PRISCILA B. CABRERA and/or OCCUPANTS OF PHIL. PACIFIC OUTSOURCING SERVICES CORPORATION located at Mezzanine Floor, Glorietta De Manila Building, 776 San Sebastian St., University Belt, Manila, have in their possession and control of the following:
  1. Computer Sets
  2. Television Sets
  3. Internet Servers
  4. Fax Machines
  5. Pornographic Films and other Pornographic Materials
  6. Web Cameras
  7. Telephone Sets
  8. Photocopying Machines
  9. List of clients and
  10. Other tools and materials used or intended to be used in the commission of the crime.

You are hereby commanded to make an immediate search any time of the DAY of the premises mentioned above which is Mezzanine Floor, Glorietta De Manila Building, 776 San Sebastian St., University Belt, Manila and take possession of the following:
  1. Computer Sets
  2. Television Sets
  3. Internet Servers
  4. Fax Machines
  5. Pornographic Films and other Pornographic Materials
  6. Web Cameras
  7. Telephone Sets
  8. Photocopying Machines
  9. List of clients and
  10. Other tools and materials used or intended to be used in the commission of the crime.

and bring to this Court the said properties and persons to be dealt with as the law may direct.  You are further directed to submit a return within ten (10) days from today.

On August 8, 2007, SI Meñez submitted a Return of Search Warrant6 to the RTC manifesting that in the morning of August 7, 2007, the operatives of the Special Task Force of the NBI implemented the said search warrant in an orderly and peaceful manner in the presence of the occupants of the described premises and that the seized items were properly inventoried in the Receipt/Inventory of Property Seized.  The items seized were the following:

1. Ten (10) units of Central Processing Units (CPUs);
2. Ten (10) units of monitors;
3. Ten (10) units of keyboard;
4. Ten (10) units of mouse; and
5. Ten (10) units of AVRs.

The RTC then issued an order granting the prayer of SI Meñez to keep the seized items in the NBI evidence room and under his custody with the undertaking to make said confiscated items available whenever the court would require them.

Aggrieved by the issuance of the said order, the named persons in the search warrant filed a Motion to Quash Search Warrant and Return Seized Properties.7 In the said motion, petitioners cited the following grounds:

A. Respondents do not have programmers making, designing, maintaining, editing, storing, circulating, distributing, or selling said websites or the contents thereof;

B.  Respondents do not have any website servers;

C. Respondents do not own the websites imputed to them, which are actually located outside the Philippines, in foreign countries, and are owned by foreign companies in those countries;

D. The testimony of the witnesses presented by the NBI are contradicted by the facts of the case as established by documentary evidence;

E. The NBI withheld verifiable information from the Honorable Court and took advantage of the limited knowledge of courts in general in order to obtain the search warrant for their personal intentions;

F. The NBI raided the wrong establishment; and

G. The element of publicity is absent.

On December 26, 2007, the RTC denied the motion8 stating, among others, that:

1.) It cannot be said that publicity is not present.  The Phil-Pacific Outsourcing Services Corp., is actually persuading its clients, thru its agents (call center agents), to log-on to the pornographic sites listed in its web page.  In that manner, Phil-Pacific Outsourcing Services Corporation is advertising these pornographic web sites, and such advertisement is a form of publicity.

2.) Even if some of the listed items intended to be seized were not recovered from the place where the search was made, it does not mean that there was no really crime being committed.  As in fact, pornographic materials were found in some of the computers which were seized.

3.) In the same way that the names listed in the Search Warrant were not arrested or not in the premises subject of the search, it does not mean that there are no such persons existing nor there is no crime being committed.

4.) As a rule, Search Warrant may be issued upon existence of probable cause.  Probable cause for a search is defined as such fact and circumstances which would lead a reasonable discreet and prudent man to believe that an offense has been committed and that the objects sought in connection with the offense are in the place sought to be reached.
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