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ISAFP Pick Up Service

August 19, 2005

In news today, DILG Secretary Angelo Reyes could not explain the legal basis for the ISAFP raid on Segundo Tabayoyong’s room in San Mateo, Rizal.  Unless the Constitution was on a hiatus (it does have a nasty habit of doing that), the ISAFP should have secured a warrant, conducted the raid and then seized the evidence.  But he says, they didn’t seize the evidence, it was handed over to them.

Reyes said Carmela Cabuhat, owner of the house rented by Segundo Tabayoyong, had “turned over” the ERs to a police-military team, as well as a gun, assorted ammunition and campaign materials allegedly found in Tabayoyong’s room.

“We didn’t confiscate these. These were turned over to us,” Reyes said in a news conference at the CIDG-NCR headquarters in Camp Crame.

I guess Sec. Reyes completely forgot about the Constitutionally-protected right against unreasonable searches and seizure.  After all,  a cabinet member and alter ego of the President can’t be bothered by this thing we call the Bill of Rights.  It’s such a hassle to go through the process outlined in the Constitution what with everything else he has to do.

And anyway, this wasn’t a search and seizure, it was a voluntary turn over — by Carmela Cabuhat.  I don’t know about Sec. Reyes but I don’t think Tabayoyong’s landlady was authorized to waive his Constitutional rights.  I imagine only Tabayoyong could do that.  But it’s been about 15 years since I took up Constitutional Law.  Things might have changed. 

Still, one has to give credit to the police and ISAFP for making sure the evidence turn over was done right. 

So, while we’re at it, I’ve got these 40 boxes of junk in the back.  My wife’s been after me for months about it and it’s becoming an irritant on our marriage.  So, Sec. Reyes, who can I call in the ISAFP for a “turn over”? 1-800-ISAFP2GO?

Posted by JJ Disini at 12:52 pm | permalink

Previous Comments

I wonder why one earth do they have to raid Tabayoyong in the first place—-

Who is Afraid of Tabayoyong….Huh?

I wonder why the police or anyone even got interested on Tabayoyong- Tabayoyong entered the National Bureau of Investigation as a mere clerk and later self-proclaimed himself to be forgery/fingerprinting/handwriting expert. He was not trained save as a Criminology student and nothing more.

In a decided case- FEDERICO O. BORROMEO, ET AL. vs. AMANCIO SUN, ET AL. G.R. No. 75908 October 22, 1999

The findings of the court is as follows—

The testimony of Mr. Segundo Tabayoyong on March 5, 1980, part of which is cited on pages 19-23 of the pet1t1on, shows admissions which are summarized by the pet1t1oner as follows:

He never finished any degree in Criminology. Neither did he obtain any degree in physics or chemistry. He was a mere trainee in the NBI laboratory. He said he had gone abroad only once-to Argentina which, according to him is the only one country in the world that gives this degree (?) . . . "People go there where they obtain this sort of degree (?) where they are authorized to practice (sic) examination of questioned documents."

His civil service eligibility was second grade (general clerical). His present position had to be "re-classified" "confidential" in order to qualify him to it. He never passed any Board Examination.

He has never authored any book on the subject on which he claimed to be an "expert." Well, he did "write" a so-called pamphlet pretentiously called "Fundamentals of Questioned Documents Examination and Forgery Detection." In that pamphlet, he mentioned some references' — (some) are Americans and one I think is a British, sir, like in the case of Dr. Wilson Harrison, a British' (he repeated with emphasis). Many of the "theories" contained in his pamphlet were lifted body and soul from those references, one of them being Albert Osborn. His pamphlet has neither quotations nor footnotes, although he was too aware of the crime committed by many an author called "plagiarism." But that did not deter him, nor bother him in the least.

He has never been a member of any professional organization of experts in his supposed field of expertise, because he said there is none locally. Neither is he on an international level. 7

It is clear in the decision that he is NOT an expert on forgery. Even the book he authored was copied from the references. At the most he is an amateur dabbling in those fields and his opinion on the subject matter of forgery is at best as good as your opinion or mine….But the only difference is that Tabayoyong says he's an expert..

Posted by Bikoyski at August 22, 2005, 2:05 pm

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