Lawyers criticize police

Thursday, February 17, 2011

SEVERAL lawyers have criticized the way Alex Tolentino, past president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter, was arrested last Tuesday night.

Tolentino was arrested by a team of the Cebu City Police Office Investigation and Detective Management Branch (IDMB), headed by Chief Insp. George Ylanan, while having dinner at his home.

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While the warrant for his arrest allowed him to post a P10,000-bail, Tolentino could not make payment because court-authorized cashiers were no longer available past court hours. The lawyer had to spend the night in jail, and was only able to post bail and leave his detention cell yesterday morning.

Tolentino, in an interview after his release, said he does not want to lodge a complaint against the police team.

IBP Cebu City Chapter president Michael Yu said a meeting is being called to discuss the way Tolentino was arrested.

More dangerous

“He was arrested at night, a day after his warrant was issued. He could have been asked to turn himself in. In the meantime, a lot of warrants against more dangerous people remain not served,” Yu lamented in an interview yesterday.

Judge Monalila Tecson of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Branch 1, issued an arrest warrant against Tolentino last Monday.

The warrant stemmed from a criminal case filed against the lawyer by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for allegedly representing a client in a 2007 case while still being employed by a government agency.

Tolentino had worked with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) legal
department.

Lawyer Dave Duallo, a member of the IBP chapter’s board of directors, wondered why the arrest was carried out by the IDMB instead of the warrants and subpoena section.

Minor

“What’s so special about Alex Tolentino?” he asked.

Many lawyers describe Tolentino’s case as “minor,” saying that even if convicted, the lawyer would merely be slapped with a fine.

Some of them, requesting anonymity, said Tolentino’s arrest may be a form of retaliation.

They recalled an incident in 2007 at the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor where Tolentino embarrassed a policewoman, a subordinate of Ylanan at the Criminal
Investigation and Intelligence Branch, forerunner of the IDMB.

Tolentino, in front of Assistant City Prosecutor Raul Cristoria, accused PO2 Jerrybel Lerio of “planting” the evidence used in the drug case filed against two of his clients.

Improvement

In full view of the prosecutor and within earshot of other policemen, Tolen-tino reportedly threatened to sue Lerio and Ylanan.

Although he will not file charges against the police team that arrested him, Tolentino said his lawyer, Earl Bonachita, plans to talk with MTCC Executive Judge Oscar Andrino to discuss how to improve the service of warrants against “non-high risk persons.”

“If this happened to a lawyer, an officer of the court, it can happen to anybody,” he said.

Yu said police officers are allowed to serve arrest warrants anytime to prevent the subjects from escaping.

Criminals

“There are more pressing arrest warrants on hardened criminals that need to be served. Instead, they chose to arrest an easy target and deliberately did it after court hours,” said Yu.

Although the arrest warrant may be served “anytime of the day,” Yu said the rationale to that premise is clearly “to prevent an accused from taking flight.”

Human rights lawyer Rex Fernandez said the police should have allowed Tolentino “due dignity.”

If the judge signed the warrant of arrest late Tuesday afternoon, Fernandez said the police could have served it on Tolentino Wednesday morning.

He said there is an administrative circular by the Supreme Court that a warrant of arrest should be served during court hours “although it can be served anytime.”

Fernandez said Tolentino could file charges against the arresting officers, such as gross oppression.