IBP: Lawyers’ arrest violated United Nations rules

MANILA, Philippines — The arrest of three lawyers during a police anti-narcotics operation at a bar in Makati City last week violated United Nations principles, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said yesterday.

In a statement, the IBP board of governors expressed alarm over the arrest and detention of and filing of charges against lawyers Lenie Rocha, Jan Vincent Soliven and Romulo Alarcon by Makati policemen last Aug. 16.

Basic principles

The group said the manner by which police treated the lawyers “violates the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, which require the government to ensure that lawyers are able to perform their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference.”

The IBP also defended the lawyers for not identifying their client as demanded by the arresting police officers, citing UN principles.

The three lawyers were arrested and detained on Aug. 16 for allegedly “intimidating” the policemen who were conducting a search at Time Bar in Makati.

The following day, police filed charges of obstruction of justice, resistance and disobedience to authority, violation of a city ordinance against crossing the police line and “constructive possession” of illegal drugs against the three lawyers.

The inquest prosecutor recommended further investigation into the case and ordered the lawyers released that night.

Diane Desierto, a partner at the Desierto and Desierto Law Firm where the three lawyers work, said they were in the bar “to just monitor the search implementation and inventory-taking as part of standard procedures.”

She also stressed that the three identified themselves as counsels for the bar owner.  

Former colleagues of presidential spokesman Harry Roque at the University of the Philippines College of Law, led by dean Fides Cordero-Tan, said the incident was a “travesty of law enforcement processes.”

Roque earlier said the three lawyers need to have a “refresher course” on what they can and cannot do during a police operation.

“They are lawyers of the law firm engaged by the owner of Time Bar to protect its rights during the search, in particular, to ensure that no evidence of drugs were planted by the police,” it said.

The arrest and filing of charges “insults lawyers, makes a mockery of the rights of the accused, and was calculated to send a clear warning that those who invoke the law in police operations will themselves be prosecuted,” the faculty said.

DILG backs cops

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said no one is above the law and lawyers can be arrested if they obstruct a legal police operation.

Assistant Secretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said local jurisprudence provides that the identity of the client “is not covered by attorney-client privilege… Thus when asked by a law enforcer lawyers are required to identify their client, otherwise they have no business crossing a police line.”

He said that in addition to refusing to reveal their client, the lawyers also failed to show any written authorization from the owner of the bar.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief, said the public should not be “too hasty in condemning” the National Capital Region Police Office.

He cited the NCRPO team’s report stating that the lawyers were moving around the bar, which was reportedly used as a drug den, taking pictures and touching items “as if doing their own search without authority,” which may have contaminated the evidence. – Janvic Mateo, Marvin Sy