House probe into arrest of Makati bar's lawyers sought

MANILA, Philippines — Two lawmakers on Wednesday urged the House of Representatives committees on Justice, and on Good Government and Public Accountability to conduct a legislative probe into the Makati bar raid last week.

Reps. Salvador Belaro Jr. (Ang Edukasyon party-list) and Doy Leachon (Oriental Mindoro) filed House Resolution No. 2086, directing the committees “to conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation, on the recent arrest by the Philippine National Police of three lawyers while representing their client during a raid in Makati City.”

Belaro is a former law dean and former commissioner for bar discipline of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

Lawyers Lenie Rocha, Jan Vincent Soliven and Romulo Alarcon were arrested Thursday last week while cops were conducting a search operation at TIME in Manila, a bar in Makati City.

The cops said that the lawyers “intimidated” them while they were conducting a search in the bar that was raided earlier.

According to Diane Desierto, partner at the Desiserto and Desierto law firm, stressed that the three lawyers were in the bar “to just monitor the search implementation and inventory-taking as part of standard procedures.”

Makati cops, on Friday, filed criminal raps—including a complaint on “constructive possession” of illegal drugs—against the lawyers.

“The above-mentioned incident is highly irregular considering that the ones arrested are lawyers who are officers of the court and who are only at the scene of the raid to perform their duties as counsel of the said establishment,” the two solons said.

They also said that the incident has a “serious implication on the observance of basic constitutional rights.”

The lawmakers stressed that the three arrested lawyers were at the bar in fulfilment of their duties as officers of the court. “[A] recurrence of said irregularity should never be countenanced because of its chilling effect of the rule of law,” read the resolution.

The incident also drew criticism from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and other lawyers’ groups. The Commission on Human Rights has launched its own probe into the incident.

Palace, Police, Ping back cops

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, a former law professor, defended the police and said the lawyers "need a refresher course on what lawyers can and cannot do."

His former colleagues at the UP College of Law, however, said: "It taxes the imagination how these three young lawyers could have employed tactics as to overcome or prevent the police from doing their job."

Director General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police chief, backed the Makati cops and said that there must be "compelling reason" for the detention of the lawyers.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former police chief himself, also urged the public to hear the side of the cops first before criticizing. He added: "There is such a thing as presumption of irregularity."