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Question VII
VII. Ernesto, a minor, while driving a motor vehicle, was stopped at a mobile checkpoint. Noticing that Ernesto is a minor, SPOl Jojo asked Ernesto to exhibit his driver's license but Ernesto failed to produce it. SPOI Jojo requested Ernesto to alight from the vehicle and the latter acceded. Upon observing a bulge in the pants of Ernesto, the policeman frisked him and found an unlicensed .22-caliber pistol inside Ernesto's right pocket. Ernesto was arrested, detained and charged. At the trial, Ernesto, through his lawyer, argued that, policemen at mobile checkpoints are empowered to conduct nothing more than a ''visual search". They cannot order the persons riding the vehicle to alight. They cannot frisk, or conduct a body search of the driver or the passengers of the vehicle.
Ernesto's lawyer thus posited that:
(a)[a] The search conducted in violation of the Constitution and established jurisprudence was an illegal search; thus, the gun which was seized in the course of an illegal search is the "fruit of the poisonous tree" and is inadmissible in evidence. (2.5%)
(b)[b] The arrest made as a consequence of the invalid search was likewise illegal, because an unlawful act (the search) cannot be made the basis of a lawful arrest. (2.5%)
Rule on the correctness of the foregoing arguments, with reasons.
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