Flashcards Studio

In a private pharmaceutical company’s R&D facility, the facilities manager, Ms. Rivera, who handles building safety and access, visits after hours when the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is away and verbally consents to a search of the entire R&D floor, including a locked steel cabinet in the CTO’s private office. The officers do not obtain a warrant. They search and seize a USB drive containing proprietary formulas from the private cabinet, and also seize notebooks and equipment from non-private areas on the floor. The CTO later challenges the search as to the private cabinet. (a)Identify the controlling doctrine and the essential elements of a valid consent to search under Philippine law. (b)Determine whether Ms. Rivera had authority to consent to search the different areas of the floor, including the locked cabinet, and explain the limits of consent with respect to the private cabinet. (c)If portions of the search are invalid, explain the legal effect on the seized evidence and what remedies are available to the accused.