Court has discretion on time of the execution of search warrant

Dear PAO,

My brother was arrested after the police searched his house and found prohibited items mentioned in the search warrant. The search was conducted at midnight; thus, our relatives are claiming that the said search was illegal because a search warrant should be implemented during daytime. The police presented a search warrant issued by one of the courts in our province. May I ask if the police armed with a search warrant can just search a property any time they want?

Wilbur

Dear Wilbur,

A search warrant is an order in writing issued in the name of the People of the Philippines, signed by a judge and directed to a peace officer, commanding him or her to search for personal property described therein and bring it before the court. (Section 1, Rule 126, Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure, as amended)

Pursuant to Section 5 of the same rule, «the judge must, before issuing the warrant, personally examine in the form of searching questions and answers, in writing and under oath, the complainant and the witnesses he may produce on facts personally known to them and attach to the record their sworn statements, together with the affidavits submitted.» Correlative thereto, «if the judge is satisfied of the existence of facts upon which the application is based or that there is probable cause to believe that they exist, he shall issue the warrant, which must be substantially in the form prescribed by these Rules.» (Section 6, Id)

In general, the search warrant must be implemented during daytime. This is in consonance with Section 9 of the same rule, which provides that:

«Time of making search. — The warrant must direct that it be served in the day time, unless the affidavit asserts that the property is on the person or in the place ordered to be searched, in which case a direction may be inserted that it be served at any time of the day or night.»

Hence, in the issuance of search warrant, the court exercises judicial discretion in fixing the time for its execution. This was explicitly provided in the case entitled People of the Philippines vs. Domingo, GR 204895, March 21, 2018, where the Supreme Court, speaking through Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, stated