On July 7, two police officers in civilian clothes tried to serve an arrest warrant on Cristina Palabay, the secretary general of human rights alliance Karapatan. The officer serving the warrant introduced himself as an LBC courier, and was later accompanied by another officer in plainclothes.
The problem? Two months ago, a recall order was already issued for the warrant they tried to serve.
In her Facebook post, Palabay recalled that the arrest warrant was for a perjury complaint from National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon against the officers of Karapatan and two other organizations. The warrants were issued while she was attending the 43rd UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, but she was able to post bail and attended online hearings upon her return to the country in April.
She was able to secure a recall order for the warrant against her on Apr. 29, which was attached in her Facebook post. The officers, however, claimed that they only received an arrest warrant yesterday and that they have yet to receive a recall order.
Another issue here is that the officers serving the arrest warrant were breaking basic operational procedures. The Philippine National Police’s handbook indicates that officers serving arrest warrants or conducting arrests should be in the prescribed uniform, introduce themselves and show proper identification. Arrested persons should also be informed of the circumstances of their arrest and read their Miranda rights—which the two officers failed to do.
Palabay said that the plainclothes officer handed over his ID, while the other officer only presented his after Palabay explained that what they were doing went against PNP’s operational procedures. The officers later explained that they were concerned that they would not be able to arrest anyone if they were to follow procedure.
Palabay ended her post by asking if the officers who tried to serve her the arrest warrant were the same people implementing the Anti-Terror Law. She also noted that she was able to secure photocopies of the IDs and documents that were presented to her before the officers left, which will be submitted to her lawyers.
Header photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
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