PNP launches rights app but tags suspect
Chief Supt. Dennis Siervo, head of the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office, shows a “Know Your Rights” mobile app, which the PNP launched at Camp Crame.—NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
A ranking police official presented to journalists on Monday a suspected hit man hours after the Philippine National Police launched a mobile app to educate policemen on rights.
Human rights lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno reminded police officials that multiple murder suspect George Ginabay should be presumed innocent until proven guilty and his presentation to the media was a violation of that principle.
But Director Roel Obusan, head of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), argued that Ginabay was “not a suspect but an accused because he was apprehended based on a warrant of arrest issued by a court.”
But Diokno disagreed with Obusan’s argument.
“All the more that he should not have been presented to the media because being an accused means he already has a case in court,” said Diokno, national chair of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) and the dean of De La Salle University College of Law.
“The publicity generated by the news conference might affect the objectivity of the court,” Diokno said.
Obusan presented Ginabay in a news conference wearing an orange CIDG detainee shirt while flanked by two policemen and without a lawyer.
The practice has repeatedly been criticized, but Obusan’s presentation was particularly ironic because the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office (HRAO) had launched its rights mobile app, called “Know Your Rights,” only hours before.
Rights advisories
The PNP “Know Your Rights” mobile app aims to help policemen familiarize themselves with the laws and the rights of the public they are serving, said Chief Supt. Dennis Siervo, head of the PNP HRAO.
The app includes a comprehensive list of “Human Rights Advisories” that include crowd control, conducting custodial investigation, implementing search warrants, police assistance during demolition, prohibition of blindfolding and media presentation, and prohibition of torture and other form of cruel and inhuman treatment or punishment.
The app also includes the so-called “Miranda warning,” which law enforcers recite to arrested suspects to inform them of their rights.
Miranda warning
The Miranda warning is even available in different dialects and foreign languages, like Korean, Japanese and Chinese.
Siervo said many policemen were unable to attend human rights seminars conducted by the PNP because of their remote assignments.
But even PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa presented suspects to the media several times.
The most recent was the suspect in the murder of a Grab driver, where Dela Rosa even invited the victim’s family to confront the suspect in front of the cameras.
On Moinday, Obusan said Ginabay was arrested for murder based on an arrest warrant issued by Nueva Vizcaya Branch 30 Presiding Judge Paul Attolba Jr.
Fake Army ID cards
Obusan said Ginabay identified himself to his clients as Army Cpl. George Guinolbay, using the surname of Lt. Col. Ruben Guinolbay, a decorated Army Scout Ranger officer.
Ginabay also had fake Army identification cards, for which he would also be charged.
The PNP official added that Ginabay might have been using the Guinolbay last name to convince his clients that he was as skillful and dependable as the real Guinolbay.
Mayor Avelino Amangyen of Paracelis, Mountain Province, positively identified Ginabay at the press conference as the same man who stabbed him twice last Oct. 10 in Santiago, Isabela.
