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Friday, January 28, 2005
Editorials: Holding the guards, sparing the Ecleos
Two PNP members from San Jose, Surigao del Norte–PO3 Warlito Acain and PO2 Romeo Ecle–were detained by Lapu-Lapu police when last Wednesday they ignored a checkpoint at the Mactan airport and sped away in their vehicle until they were caught at the foot of Fernan Bridge.
Snubbing a police checkpoint is grievous enough. Not stopping despite the chase by Lapu-Lapu cops, their Swat car siren blaring and lights flashing, worsens the insult to authority.
Acain, who drove the Strada SUV, and Ecle, as police officers, know what dodging a police checkpoint means. Flight was a signal they had violated or were violating the law and wouldn't want to be stopped and checked.
What must surprise us, we who aren't into law enforcement, is that Lapu-Lapu police held the Surigao cops while they let VIPs Glenda Ecleo and son Ruben Ecleo Jr. go.
Because the Ecleos were not driving the vehicle and not accountable for the lapses of their bodyguards?
Yet, would the cops have avoided the checkpoint and sped away without the approval of their bosses in the car? The Ecleos--the mother a congressman and the son an ex-mayor and leader of a religious flock--know what disrespect to authority means.
They could have ordered their escorts to stop and submit themselves to inspection. They did not. On the contrary, they ordered, or allowed, the driver to speed away.
The public can't avoid the suspicion the Ecleos were behaving like many other persons in power: resist queues and checkpoints where they are treated like ordinary persons.
The Ecleos walked while the two cops bore the brunt of interrogation, which included inquiry into lapses in their mission, sourcing of bodyguards, mission order and firearm papers.
The cops can disregard unlawful orders, but how can they question police superiors and the Ecleos who, because of power and money, think they can get away with a police roadblock?
Hunting fugitives
When does the accused become fugitive? Not until he actually flees. An arrest warrant against a person or even his preparations of flight don't necessarily make him a fugitive, not till he hides or runs.
Police go to his house and serve the warrant. That isn't hunting, just process serving.
Police start hunting when the accused starts being a fugitive.
In talking about hunting and fleeing, distinctions can be crucial.
(January 28, 2005 issue)
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