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Monday, October 27, 2003
Wife claims cops fondled her in drug raid
By Victor L. Camion
STA. CATALINA, Negros Oriental -- A housewife accused two municipal police officers of fondling her and forcing her to urinate in their presence and in front of her husband during a drug raid inside their house in Alangilan village more than a month ago.
Myrlinda Baguio, in a three-page affidavit to her lawyer Raymund Mercado, named the officers as Elmer Sagal and Alenjun Hermodo, two of several unknown number of others who raided their house around 6 a.m. last August 11.
Baguio also accused the two officers of planting evidences when she allegedly saw Sagal place under the cover of the altar "something wrapped with an empty Winston cigarette pack".
Hermodo, she said, picked up an empty matchbox from the kitchen and placed inside it "what looks like a plastic packet."
Baguio identified one other officer as a certain Sanchez.
Before the incident, she said, she woke up around 4 o'clock in the morning while her husband Rolly was still sleeping to prepare for the needs of her family and the children who were to attend school that day.
The housewife said she was fetching water from the well when she heard noise inside the house.
On checking, she saw armed men enter the fenced premises, some pushing the fence causing it to collapse.
Baguio said she attempted to enter the front door but four armed men, whom she said were policemen, blocked and held her tightly while pointing their guns on her.
Eventually, out of concern for her family, she broke free and ran to the backdoor where another set of officers also tried to stop her.
She said she broke through the armed men and inside she saw Sagal planting evidence under the altar cover and her husband already seated while several officers searched the house.
Because of the tension, Baguio said, she asked excuse to urinate in the toilet, but the police officers refused, forcing her to do it in their presence.
"So I told them that if they will not allow me to go to the comfort room, I would just urinate in front of them as my bladder became unbearably painful," the woman said.
Later, she said that while she was putting on her underwear, the police officers who allegedly watched and laughed while she was urinating frisked her.
Sagal, she said, then fondled her.
"I was frisked by the same police personalities who watched and laughed at me while I was urinating, including Elmer Sagal, who placed his hands under my shirt through the neck hole, frisking my underarms and touching my breast in the process," narrated Baguio.
After the alleged abuses, the housewife said, a certain Sanchez brought out a piece of paper purportedly a search warrant which she and her husband did not read because the search was already over.
Baguio said Alangilan village chief Jose Lakpaw and village councilor Tikoy Lakpaw, who arrived after the search and were showed the "evidences", did not sign the inventory.
"According to them, they were not present when the search was conducted; so other persons were made to sign in their stead," she added.
The inventory of "evidence" included a small package wrapped in an empty Winston cigarette pack, a matchbox containing a plastic packet and several one hundred peso bills.
Commenting on his clients' complaints, Mercado said the frisking of a female drug suspect should be done by a policewoman.
The lawyer believes that the motive of the police officers were not only to search for evidence but also to abuse the woman.
On the alleged planting of evidence, Mercado said this is punishable by death.
Aside from filing a complaint for rights abuses before the Commission on Human rights this week, Baguio is also planning to file a formal complaint for planting of evidence against the police officers.
(October 26, 2003 issue)
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