POLICE said on Friday, October 9, 2020, that the arrested female Grab driver, Florence Norial, was rude and was the first to assault a police officer at the driveway of a coffee shop in Taguig City.
Southern Police District Director Emmanuel Peralta said on a surveillance camera footage handed over to the investigators by a concerned citizen allegedly showed how Norial started the altercation.
Norial's vehicle was behind the vehicle of another customer, Captain Ronald Saquilayan, on the driveway of a coffee shop on Tuesday evening, October 6, 2020.
Saquilayan was waiting for his daughter, who was inside the coffee shop.
According to Peralta, Norial stepped out of her car, knocked rudely on the window and told Saquilayan to move his vehicle.
The cop told her that he was also a customer. Norial then allegedly told the security guard to instruct Saquilayan to move but the guard refused.
Peralta said Norial was shouting at the top of her voice.
Saquilayan then introduced himself as a police officer but Norial allegedly continued to berate him.
He said Norial tried to prevent Saquilayan from boarding his vehicle again by standing in front of the driver’s door.
She got hit by the door when Saquilayan opened hit. Then she slapped Saquilayan and ran towards the coffee shop.
Peralta said this prompted Saquilayan to arrest her.
“The footage tells the whole story contradicting all the crooked claims of Mary Florence Norial that she was the one assaulted by the cop, but the truth was that she rudely showed her undisciplined personality, disobedience to policy of first come first served of the commercial establishment like Starbucks coffee shop and utmost disrespect to authorities even after Saquilayan has introduced himself as a police officer,” said Peralta.
“And worst she maliciously used the social media by posting her own footage while narrating different story lines to malign the cop Saquilayan and the whole Substation 4 personnel,” he added.
In Norial’s version of the incident, which she posted on her Facebook account as well as on her boyfriend’s, Norial had picked up a passenger in the area and signaled Saquilayan using her vehicle’s headlight and horn to move his vehicle so she could pass.
After waiting for several minutes, she said she alighted from her car and knocked on the other vehicle’s window on the dirver side to request him to move so she can pass through, but the driver ignored her which prompted her to ask for the assistance of the security guards.
She said the driver then “forcefully” opened his door which knocked her down and sent her sprawling to the bushes. In defense, Norial said she slapped Saquilayan.
She was brought to the Taguig City police station where she was detained.
Norial’s camp claimed that the police refused to hear their side and was obviously taking the side of their colleague. (SunStar Philippines)