Lacson on arrest of Makati bar lawyers: Get the cops’ side of the story

Senator Panfilo M. Lacson on Tuesday, Aug. 21, asked the public not to be quick in condemning cops for the arrest of the three lawyers during the Makati bar drug raid.
“Let us not be too hasty or harsh in condemning the NCRPO (National Capital Region Police Office), without getting their side of the story. There is such a thing as presumption of regularity,” Mr. Lacson, who was a former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, said in a statement.
The police over the past few days received public backlash for detaining lawyers Lenie Rocel E. Rocha, Jan Vincent S. Soliven and Romulo Bernard B. Alarcon, who allegedly intimidated police conducting a search at the Time bar on Thursday.
Even the Commission on Human Rights and Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo had aired their concern over the PNP’s action, which both camps have pointed out as going against Constitutional rights and Rule of Law.
Further, the University of the Philippines College of Law late Monday had also released a statement of condemnation and demanded to have the charges filed against the three lawyers dropped.
“We demand the immediate dismissal of the cases against them. We demand that the police involved be made to account for this travesty of law enforcement processes,” the UP College of Law said. — Charmaine A. Tadalan