Search warrant-happy Philippines judge suspended

Memories of the questionable police raids on online gambling support centres in the Philippines in 2013 were revived this week with the news that the judge who issued the search warrants on rather dubious grounds has been suspended without pay for two years.

The issue was considered by the Supreme Court of the Philippines last month, which came to the conclusion that Judge Zaldy Docena was culpable of gross neglect of duty, specifically in respect to the mismanagement of search warrant applications.

Judge Docena was fortunate to get away so lightly; the Court Administrator and some of the Supreme Court bench wanted him barred from all judicial service due to both his misconduct and apparent ignorance of the law. But thirty years of government service helped him dodge that bullet.

Last year the Supreme Court banned Docena from issuing search warrants pending the outcome of his case before the Court, which considered the issues surrounding the warrants. These had empowered the police to raid legitimate businesses not directly involved in gambling transactions.

In 2014 a lower court had found the raids to be illegal because they were based on false allegations submitted in an affidavit  by a former Bodog Asia manager (see previous reports).

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