Behind the Scenes
>> Sunday, October 25, 2020
Alfred P Dizon
A
female Grab driver spent seven days in jail because the Taguig City police
allowed a colleague, a police captain from nearby Pateros, to arrest her over
something that should have been settled amicably or, at most, adjudicated at
the barangay level.
The arrest of Florence Norial by P/Capt. Ronald Saquilayan has been reduced now to a case of unjust vexation after the policeman’s add-on charges alleging alarm and scandal, direct assault and disobedience of a person in authority were dismissed by government prosecutors.
Still, the brouhaha has taken on a national dimension because it shows that anyone can be a victim of a questionable arrest just because you happen to engage a cop in a spat. If it happened to Norial, it can certainly happen to you or to anyone.
Interviewed on television, a policeman-subordinate of Saquilayan summed up everything that’s wrong with this incident when he said that Norial should not have stood her ground the moment the captain introduced himself as a police officer.
That’s as convoluted and flawed a reasoning one can offer because wearing a badge or a uniform (Saquilayan was off-duty and in civilian at the time) does not make a person right especially on that fiasco which was nothing more than a he-said, she-said affair.
To those who may have missed the drama, the incident stemmed from Norial heatedly asking Saquilayan to move his vehicle from the driveway of a mall in Taguig so she can pass. With the cop not budging, she went out of her car and knocked on his window while asking a guard to do his job of clearing the driveway.
What really happened next depends on who you talk with. According to Saquilayan, he arrested Norial because she slapped him. The woman countered that she only did so after the cop slammed the door of his vehicle into her, causing her to fall to the ground.
It was at that point that the Taguig cops came and completed the questionable arrest effected by Captain Saquilayan. If her claim that she was not read her rights is true, then that arrest was illegal, too.
At the police precinct, the Taguig cops took their colleague’s narrative hook, line and sinker, all the while, according to Norial, refusing to take her statement and depriving her of the right to also file a complaint.
The arrest of Florence Norial by P/Capt. Ronald Saquilayan has been reduced now to a case of unjust vexation after the policeman’s add-on charges alleging alarm and scandal, direct assault and disobedience of a person in authority were dismissed by government prosecutors.
Still, the brouhaha has taken on a national dimension because it shows that anyone can be a victim of a questionable arrest just because you happen to engage a cop in a spat. If it happened to Norial, it can certainly happen to you or to anyone.
Interviewed on television, a policeman-subordinate of Saquilayan summed up everything that’s wrong with this incident when he said that Norial should not have stood her ground the moment the captain introduced himself as a police officer.
That’s as convoluted and flawed a reasoning one can offer because wearing a badge or a uniform (Saquilayan was off-duty and in civilian at the time) does not make a person right especially on that fiasco which was nothing more than a he-said, she-said affair.
To those who may have missed the drama, the incident stemmed from Norial heatedly asking Saquilayan to move his vehicle from the driveway of a mall in Taguig so she can pass. With the cop not budging, she went out of her car and knocked on his window while asking a guard to do his job of clearing the driveway.
What really happened next depends on who you talk with. According to Saquilayan, he arrested Norial because she slapped him. The woman countered that she only did so after the cop slammed the door of his vehicle into her, causing her to fall to the ground.
It was at that point that the Taguig cops came and completed the questionable arrest effected by Captain Saquilayan. If her claim that she was not read her rights is true, then that arrest was illegal, too.
At the police precinct, the Taguig cops took their colleague’s narrative hook, line and sinker, all the while, according to Norial, refusing to take her statement and depriving her of the right to also file a complaint.
Had
the Taguig cops allowed Norial to file counter-charges over her bruises and the
trauma of the questionable arrest, Saquilayan should have also been in jail,
possibly also for unjust vexation and slight physical injury charges. Norial
filing counter-charges may have also impleaded the Taguig cops, so maybe that’s
why the Taguig cops gave her the deaf ear.
But what is the police but one big boys’ organization that, in many cases, protects its own?
So, as if jailing a woman because a self-important junior police officer felt entitled to blocking a driveway and effecting a dubious arrest, now come the Southern Police District (SPD) and the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) defending Saquilayan.
Like the arresting Taguig cops, the NCRPO under P/Major General Debold Sinas and SPD have given Saquilayan a special treatment instead of just treating him and Norial as contending parties and leaving the matter for the disposition of prosecutors.
But can we expect anything better from Sinas, he of the mañanita ignominy? He may be predisposed to coddling cops because he himself has no problem getting entangled with the law, such as when he held a birthday bash in clear violation of COVID-19 quarantine protocols.
Had P/Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar been at the helm of NCRPO, Saquilayan would have gotten a dressing down, at the very least, for being a peace officer who cannot display a modicum of self-restraint to deescalate and withdraw from a petty confrontation.
Unjust vexation? What is that but an offense penalized by a fine of merely P500 to P5,000 and an imprisonment period of one to two months that, in most likelihood, would not be served? If all unjust vexation complaints will be given due course by prosecutors, our courts will all the more be clogged with cases that should be settled amicably.
And why did the prosecutors take a week to resolve the complaints against Norial? She has yet to be proven guilty yet she already spent seven days in jail because a policeman felt vexed? This may serve Norial and all the people who are easy to anger a lesson that it does not pay to be confrontational. Still, seven days in jail just because of policemen’s false sense of brotherhood and slow-acting prosecutors?
But what is the police but one big boys’ organization that, in many cases, protects its own?
So, as if jailing a woman because a self-important junior police officer felt entitled to blocking a driveway and effecting a dubious arrest, now come the Southern Police District (SPD) and the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) defending Saquilayan.
Like the arresting Taguig cops, the NCRPO under P/Major General Debold Sinas and SPD have given Saquilayan a special treatment instead of just treating him and Norial as contending parties and leaving the matter for the disposition of prosecutors.
But can we expect anything better from Sinas, he of the mañanita ignominy? He may be predisposed to coddling cops because he himself has no problem getting entangled with the law, such as when he held a birthday bash in clear violation of COVID-19 quarantine protocols.
Had P/Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar been at the helm of NCRPO, Saquilayan would have gotten a dressing down, at the very least, for being a peace officer who cannot display a modicum of self-restraint to deescalate and withdraw from a petty confrontation.
Unjust vexation? What is that but an offense penalized by a fine of merely P500 to P5,000 and an imprisonment period of one to two months that, in most likelihood, would not be served? If all unjust vexation complaints will be given due course by prosecutors, our courts will all the more be clogged with cases that should be settled amicably.
And why did the prosecutors take a week to resolve the complaints against Norial? She has yet to be proven guilty yet she already spent seven days in jail because a policeman felt vexed? This may serve Norial and all the people who are easy to anger a lesson that it does not pay to be confrontational. Still, seven days in jail just because of policemen’s false sense of brotherhood and slow-acting prosecutors?
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