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Six policemen, including Supt. Franklin Moises Mabanag, were each
suspended for six months after they were found to have used
excessive force in arresting relatives of the late Trinidad Arteche
Etong, the wife of broadcaster Ted Failon, two months ago.
In a 22-page decision, the National Police
Commission (Napolcom) on Monday found the six accused culpable for
grave misconduct. Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo
Puno is chairman of the commission.
Suspended with Mabanag were his deputy chief
Supt. Gerardo Ratuita, Chief Inspectors Cherry Lou Donato and Enrico
Figueroa, Senior Inspector. Roberto Razon and Inspector. Erlinda
Garcia.
Mabanag was also sacked as chief of the Criminal
Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU) of the Quezon City Police.
Three other police officers—Supt. Marcelino
Pedrozo, Senior Police Officer 2 Jerry Abada and Police Officer 2
Joycelyn Marcelo—were exonerated of the charges filed against them
for insufficiency of evidence.
The administrative case against Mabanag and the
other respondents was initiated by the Inspection, Monitoring and
Investigation Service of the Napolcom over the arrest of the
sister-in-law and house helpers of Failon, whose wife Trinidad was
found with a gunshot wound to the head on April 15.
Wife a suicide
The National Bureau of Investigation, which took
over from Napolcom the investigation of the case, concluded that
Trinidad had committed suicide.
The administrative case stemmed from the arrest
by Mabanag and other officers of Pamela Arteche-Trinchera,
Failon’s sister-in-law, and four helpers of the Failons for
“obstruction of justice” on April 16.
Mabanag claimed that Arteche-Trinchera and the
four helpers— Carlota Morbos, Wilfreda Bollicer, Pacifico Apacible
and Glen Polan— committed the crime when they allegedly gave
contradictory statements to police investigators, failed to report
to the police the incident involving of Trinidad and cleaning and
altering material evidence in the incident.
The police officers also claimed that
Arteche-Trinchera and the four house helpers were arrested without
warrants supposedly because they were committing the continuing
offense of obstruction of justice at the time of the arrests.
In its decision, the Napolcom said that Mabanag
and the five other police officers violated not only existing Police
Operational Procedures on carrying out valid arrests but also the
Rules of Court.
The claim of Mabanag that the warrantless
arrests were made because the crime being committed was a continuing
offense, it added, could not be justified, considering that the
alleged crime of obstruction of justice took place April 15, the day
of the incident. The arrests made by Mabanag and his officers, the
Napolcom said, were made the day after, at the New Era General
Hospital in Quezon City where Trinidad was brought for medical
treatment.
“Clearly, there was no obstruction of justice.
Ergo, the warrantless arrests were illegal,” the Napolcom decision
said.
It added, “The acts of respondents . . .
Mabanag and . . . Ratuita were patently illegal. These acts
constitute grave misconduct.”
Rights not read
The Napolcom also ruled that Mabanag and his
group failed to substantiate their claim that those arrested were
properly read their rights as required under the Miranda Doctrine.
It said, though, that Mabanag and the other
arresting officers did not use excessive force and that a video
footage of the incident showed that physical force was necessary
because a commotion had already erupted inside the hospital where
the arrests were made.
“Those who are supposed to enforce the law are
not justified in disregarding the rights of the individual in the
name of order,” the decision added.
“An overzealous enforcement of laws resulting
in the violation of basic rights of our citizens should not be
condoned,” it said.
The Napolcom also ruled that there was
insufficient evidence that Pedrozo, Abad and Marcelo deliberately
concealed the names of the police officers who participated in the
arrest of Arteche-Trinchera and the house helpers.
Napolcom earlier placed Mabanag and Ratuita on
preventive suspension for 30 days pending the investigation of the
case against them.
-- Sammy Martin And Cris G. Odronia
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