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Section 1. Search Warrant Defined

SEARCH WARRANT
An order in writing signed by judge in the name of the
People of the Philippines commanding a peace
officer to search for personal property and bring it
before the court.

ELEMENTS OF A SEARCH WARRANT
1. Order in writing
2. Signed by judge in the name of the People of
3. Commanding a peace officer to search for personal property
4. To bring the property before the court

NATURE OF A SEARCH WARRANT
a. It is in the nature of a criminal process and
   may be invoked only in furtherance of public
   prosecutions. It has no relation to civil
   processes or trials
b. It is not available to individuals in the course of
   civil proceedings;
c. It is not for the maintenance of any private
   right.
d. It is INTERLOCUTORY in character – it leaves
   something more to be done, the determination
   of the guilt of the accused

GENERAL WARRANT
It is a process which authorizes the search and
seizure of things, in a general manner. It does not
specify or describe with particularity the things to be
searched and seized. This kind of warrant is VOID
as it infringes on the constitutional mandate requiring
particular description of the things to be seized.

Object of a Search Warrant
To obtain the goods, and bring the person in whose
custody they are found, either to be recognized as a
witness or to be subject to such further proceedings
as the ends of justice may require.

A search warrant must conform strictly to the
requirements of the constitutional and statutory
provisions under which it is issued, otherwise it is
VOID

It will always be construed strictly without going the
full length of requiring technical accuracy.

No presumptions of regularity are to be invoked in aid
of the process when an officer undertakes to justify
under it.

Garaygay v. People, G.R. No. 138758 (2000)
Where a search warrant is issued by one court
and the criminal action based on the results of the
search is afterwards commenced in another court, a
motion to quash the warrant/to retrieve things
thereunder seized may be filed for the first time in
either the issuing court or that in which the criminal
action is pending. However, the remedy is alternative,
not cumulative.

People v. Ko, G.R. No. 133254-55 (2001)
The Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 is a special
law that deals specifically with dangerous drugs
which are subsumed into “prohibited” and “regulated”
drugs and defines and penalizes categories of
offenses which are closely related or which belong to
the same class or species. Accordingly, one search
warrant may thus be validly issued for the said
violations of the Dangerous Drugs Act.