Longest night hunt leads to morning arrest
Sen. Leila de Lima waves at her supporters outside the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court on Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. (Photo by NINO JESUS ORBETA/Philippine Daily Inquirer)
It was a long chase across the metropolis—and even a longer vigil in the Senate—but in the end the cops caught their quarry: Sen. Leila de Lima.
With sirens blaring, a team of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) policemen raced across Metro Manila on Thursday night to arrest De Lima, the highest-profile critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, after the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court issued a warrant for her arrest on drug charges.
The senator’s camp had reached an agreement that she would not be arrested on Thursday night, but the CIDG was keen on enforcing the court order.
“Once we get the warrant, we will proceed with the arrest. But first, have your dinner,” CIDG Director Roel Obusan told reporters staked out at the CIDG-National Capital Region office in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
Arresting team
At that time, De Lima had let it be known from the Senate that she was going home to see her family.
But at the CIDG-NCR office, officers on the arresting team were moving out carrying bulletproof vests and rifles.
At 7:30 p.m., four highway patrolmen on the motorcycles arrived. They were going to escort the CIDG convoy that would take De Lima to jail.
The convoy—made up of three jeeps, a coaster and four motorcycle escorts—rolled out of Camp Crame around 9 p.m. and turned south on Edsa.
There were reports that the CIDG team, led by Chief Insp. Garman Manabat, was going directly to the Senate but the team decided to go to De Lima’s home in Parañaque City.
Dramatic chase
Watched by thousands as television and social media showed its progress, the convoy snaked through the traffic along Edsa until it broke through gridlock in Makati.
The policemen reached De Lima’s residence in South Bay Village at around 10 p.m., but when the team tried to serve the warrant, they were told that the senator was not home.
Empty-handed, the policemen left the subdivision at around 10:15 p.m. and headed back north.
After nearly two hours of snaking through the streets of Metro Manila, the CIDG team sent to arrest De Lima arrived at the Senate at 10:44 p.m.
Overnight watch
The more than two dozen officers, including two policewomen, formed up in the parking lot inside the Senate compound.
They put on their bulletproof vests and held their rifles but they were not allowed to enter the building as their officers negotiated with the Senate security for De Lima’s surrender.
The CIDG officers agreed to wait until 10 a.m. Friday and so the policemen stood down and returned to their vehicles to rest—and hold vigil—until De Lima turned herself in nine hours later.
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