Philippines judge’s search warrant authority suspended

A Malabon City judge in the Philippines apparently prone to lashing out online gambling search warrants with scant regard for jurisdictional limits has had his authority limited by the Philippines Supreme Court pending a thorough review of his cases.

Local media reports note that Judge Zaldy Docena has complied with a number of police requests for search warrants on internet gambling support centres, on occasions overreaching his jurisdictional authority.

The higher court found that the judge was prone to over-issuing such warrants and suspended his authority to do so for six months whilst an enquiry is conducted on the justification for his decisions.

To facilitate the enquiry, the court administrator has been required to secure and seal all the search applications made to the judge.

The Supreme Court’s intervention may have been triggered by an online gambling support centre raid carried out by the police using a search warrant issued by the judge.

In subsequent judicial proceedings questionable activity was unearthed leading the court to rule the action illegal and restrain the police from using any information garnered from the raid.

The legal support centres of several prominent and respectable online gambling companies have reportedly borne the brunt of the search warrant-enabled police raids in the Philippines, including Kambi Sports and William Hill.

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