Quintero v NBI; G.R. No. L-35149; 23 Jun 1988; 162 SCRA 467

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FACTS:
Petitioner is a delegate of the First District of Leyte to the 1971 Constitutional Convention. He delivered a privileged speech at the plenary session and disclosed that certain persons are bribing some delegates. He eventually released from his hospital bed a sworn statement the names of the persons who gave him the money, implicating the First Lady among others. On the basis of a search warrant, agents of the respondent National Bureau of Investigation raided petitioner’s house and a criminal complaint for direct bribery was filed against him.

ISSUE(S):
Whether or not the search warrant issued was valid.

HELD:
NO. The interrogations conducted by the respondent judge upon the applicant NBI agent showed that the latter knew nothing, of his own personal knowledge, to show that petitioner had committed any offense. The statement of Congressman Mate, which was the sole basis for the issuance of the search warrant, was replete with conclusions and inferences drawn from what he allegedly witnessed when he visited petitioner in the hospital. It lacked the directness and definiteness which would have been present, had the same statement dealt with facts which Congressman Mate actually witnessed.

Search warrant issued is declared NULL and VOID.

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