A MALL employee in Davao City is facing charges before the court after he resisted inspection and injured a policeman in the process last February 6.
Charged with disobedience and resistance to person in authority, and slight physical injuries is Adrian Cabunoc Luyaga, an employee of the SM Lanang Premiere in Davao City.
Prosecutor Rizalyn Gonzales found probable cause to charge the accused based on the complaint filed by Senior Police Officer 2 Sherlou Himulatan and Police Officer 3 Jerry Legarda.
A resolution dated February 10 showed that the two police officers were assigned at the Vehicle Security Assistance at Gate 3 of the mall where the Asean Summit 2017 was held.
The officers were performing their duty when the accused, onboard a yellow Suzuki Raider 150, arrived. Himulatan asked the accused to lift his helmet for her to see the face and noticed that the motorcycle of the accused had no plate number. The accused then took the plate from his bag and explained that it had been detached from the motorcycle.
Out of suspicion, Himulatan asked the accused for pertinent papers covering the motorcycle but the accused failed to show any document.
Himulatan instructed Luyaga to wait as she needed to contact the traffic investigator. The officer took the ignition key from the motorcycle of the accused to prevent him from leaving but before the officer could contact the investigator, the accused sped off using another key that prompted Legarda, the other officer, to hold the motorcycle's back to prevent the accused from fleeing and hence, was dragged on the road and got hurt in the process. The accused, however, ignored the officers.
In a medical certificate issued by the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), it was indicated that Legarda sustained abrasions on his right knee after he was dragged on the motorcycle driven by the accused.
The complainants received reports from the security guard of the mall that the accused submitted himself at the security office and he was eventually arrested.
But the prosecutor dismissed the complaint for slight physical injury saying that the injury sustained by Legarda is a constitutive element of the crime of serious disobedience under the Revised Penal Code (RPC).
"The complainants were engaged in the performance of official duty as they were implementing a security check on the occasion of the Asean Summit 2017," Gonzales said.
Gonzales added the accused's failure to comply or refusal to obey the order of the complainants constitutes the felony of serious disobedience.