Lawyers’ arrest shows ‘worsening impunity’

“What the minority has accomplished is a testament of our desire to serve and prove our worth to the people,” says Sen. Franklin Drilon.

MANILA – Three senator-lawyers stressed that the arrest and filing of charges against three lawyers who responded to a raid of a Makati City bar were illegal.

Police’s actions against the lawyers were “patently unlawful and arbitrary” and a “manifestation of a worsening culture of impunity in the Philippine National Police,” Franklin Drilon said.

“The arrest of the three lawyers was not only an assault against the country’s legal profession but also a blatant display of disrespect against our entire justice system,” said Drilon.

The incident puts ordinary citizens at risk of being arrested or threatened with arrest, the former Justice secretary said. “Such action poses threats on the rule of law, a basic pillar of our democracy.”

Attorneys Jan Vincent Soliven, Lenie Rocel Rocha and Romulo Bernard Alarkon have been charged by the Makati City police last Friday with “constructive possession” of dangerous drugs.

The lawyers were arrested during a police raid of a bar suspected of operating as a drug den.

Meanwhile Leila de Lima said the arrest of lawyers defending their client from a police raiding team has made them “targets” of the administration’s war on drugs.

“The police were responding in the only manner that they know since they were unleashed like dogs by their master in Malacañang two years ago,” de Lima said.

“The message is clear. The police is no longer making any distinction between lawyers defending clients and the target of police operations,” said the fierce Duterte critic. “Lawyers are now fair game as targets of the drug war. That IBP (Integrated Bar of the Philippines) card is no longer protection from police abuse.”

For his part Richard Gordon said the Makati police who arrested and detained the bar’s lawyers may face charges for arbitrary detention.

Mali ang ginawa ng mga pulis. Mga abogado ang mga iyon, officers of the court. Ang abogado tungkulin niyang bantayan ang kliyente niya. Walang obstruction of justice doon,” Gordon explained.

There was no excuse for police officers not to know and understand the laws, he added. “Hindi pwedeng they will violate the law. Anybody is entitled to a lawyer.”/PN

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