Arresting innocent drivers in road mishaps still a PNP dilemma

FILE PHOTO: Motorists are seen enduring the heavy traffic along Edsa in this file photo taken in November 2021. INQUIRER.net file photo / JONATHAN VICENTE

MANILA, Philippines — Arresting innocent drivers in road mishaps when the at-fault party has died is still a dilemma for the Philippine National Police (PNP), according to Police Colonel Joshua Alejandro.

Sen. JV Ejercito highlighted this topic in the public hearing of the Committee on Public Services on Tuesday.

“Actually, sir, ‘yan din po ‘yung napupuntang dilemma sa PNP,” Alejandro said during the hearing.

(Actually, sir, that’s a dilemma for the PNP.)

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“Hindi rin po namin alam kung may batas ba tayo na nakaka-sanction ‘pagka vehicular accident at namatay ‘yung nakabangga, e automatic ba na kahit kasalanan niya e hindi natin siya isa-sanction,” he added.

(We also don’t know if we have a law that sanctions, for instance, in a vehicular accident and the person responsible died, is it automatic not to penalize that person even if they are at fault?)

Alejandro stated that if a person died in an accident, the PNP immediately files a case against the other party.

Ejercito brought up the incident along Skyway in Quezon City where an SUV driver was apprehended after a motorcycle that was counterflowing crashed on his vehicle, killing its driver.

“It’s also unfair for drivers who get involved in a mishap na kahit hindi kasalanan, automatic kinukulong kasi po may namatay,” said Ejercito.

(It’s also unfair for drivers who get involved in a mishap to automatically get detained despite being innocent because a person died.)

Atty. Albert Abragan II from the Department of Justice (DOJ) explained that the detention “was more of a preventive while the police officers were determining the liabilities and to determine if to file the complaint before the prosecutor.”

Meanwhile, Senator Raffy Tulfo asked Abragan about his opinion regarding the law that they should create addressing the topic.

Abragan recommended that as soon as the authorities arrived at the scene, they should immediately conduct and determine if the other party was at fault. He stressed that if the driver was proven innocent, they should be released and not be detained.  Arianne Denisse Cagsawa, INQUIRER.net intern