(Eagle News) — The Palace on Monday, Aug. 20, defended the police’s arrest of three lawyers in a Makati bar raid for alleged obstruction of justice and intimidation.
According to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, a lawyer himself, lawyers Lenie Rocel Rocha, Jan Vincent Soliven, and Romulo Bernard Alarkon needed a refresher course in criminal law.
In the first place, he said “lawyers have absolutely no involvement in an ongoing police investigation.”
“Their role is when there is already a pending action in the Prosecutor’s Office, if there is anything that was wrong in the police investigation, then they can alleged this either in the determination of probable cause or in the trial itself,” Roque said.
According to Roque, in the case at hand, the police were armed with a search warrant so they could open a vault that was housed in the Time in Manila bar in Makati.
In two previous instances, the bar yielded ecstasy tablets and drug paraphernalia, among others, according to the police.
“When you prevent a police from affecting the service of a search warrant, in my mind that’s really obstruction of justice,” he said, noting that the lawyers could also be charged for possible violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility.
The Makati Prosecutors Office has ordered Soliven, Alarkon and Rocha released pending further probe into the charges of constructive possession of illegal drugs filed against them.
Apart from these charges, the police filed charges for obstruction of justice, resistance and disobedience, and for violation of an ordinance preventing individuals from crossing a police line against the three lawyers.
