Ping's Warrantless Arrests
Published in The Manila Times
(January 29, 2000)
The LAWASIA Human Rights Committee reported in 1994 that, in Manila, as per the report of the police itself, out of a total of 16,907 people arrested in 1992, at least 16,447 were arrested without a warrant.
EXPECT that with Gen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson at the helm of the National Police, the move to legalize the warrantless arrest of suspected criminals will persist and continue to be rammed down the throats of our people's representatives in Congress. Just like the national ID system that was junked by the Supreme Court for being unduly intrusive into the right to privacy of citizens, this move to effect the warrantless arrest of citizens would surely be sprung upon our unwary citizenry from time to time by Lacson, ostensibly as an antidote to crime.
Let our people not be deceived -- because of Lacson's calls -- into thinking that the law does not authorize lawmen to effect any arrest sans a judicial warrant.
This, since the police as well as civilians -- under the concept of citizen's arrest - are actually empowered to arrest persons under certain circumstances. This is provided for under Rule 113 (Section 5) of the 1985 Rules on Criminal Procedure. This provision allows lawmen (and citizens) to arrest anybody even without any judicial warrant in the following instances.
(a) When, in his presence, the person to be arrested has committed, is actually committing, or is attempting to commit an offense;
(b) When an offense has in fact just been committed, and he has personal knowledge of facts indicating that the person to be arrested has committed it; and
(c) When the person to be arrested is a prisoner who has escaped.
The general rule is that arrests can only be effected by virtue of a judicial warrant. The exemption is the one provided for under this rule.
These principles must be viewed in light of the premium we the sovereign people bestow upon our right to liberty. A right that no government should trample upon unless for well-defined and highly justifiable reasons.
On top of this provision, the law also authorizes lawmen to detain suspects over a certain period of time during which charges against them should be duly filed before the court -- 36 hours for capital crimes like murder, 18 hours for less grave offenses like robbery and 12 hours for light offenses like vagrancy.
Official records of arrest carried out by the police very
well speak for themselves how the police disregard the constitutional right to
liberty of our people.
The LAWASIA Human Rights Committee reported in 1994 that, in Manila, as per the
report of the police itself, out of a total of 16,907 people arrested in 1992,
at least 16,447 were arrested without a warrant.
Out of 16,907 cases of arrests, only 180 were effected by virtue of judicial warrants. Out of the said 16,907 total number of persons arrested, at least 6,638 were reported to have been detained by the police.
Lacson's stated motives in advocatina warrantless arrests are laudable. He must, however, recognize that the right to liberty stands as one of the most cherished rights under our democracy.
This, especially in light of the fact that in this part of the world, the National Police and its military counterpart, the Armed Forces, have once been and until now continue to be hounded by charges of human rights abuses.
This, owing largely to the absolute power vested upon the military during the, 14-year martial law regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
With all the current constitutional and legal safeguards meant to protect the rights of citizens -- regardless of whether they are guilty or innocent -- charges of human rights violations continue to attend our lawmen.
Empowering the police, to broaden and expand their power to arrest and detain suspects would inevitably lead to the perpetration -- with greater impunity -- of far more serious violations of human rights.
PERFECTO CAPARAS II
