Abalos to raise legal aid fund for ‘harassed’ cops

Who will help lawmen facing law suits?

Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos said his office would start raising funds to provide legal assistance to local policemen who are being  “harassed” with criminal charges filed by people they had crossed in the line of duty, especially moneyed drug lords.

In support of the plan, the chief of the city police also noted that the lawyers provided by the Philippine National Police (PNP) could use some help from more “experienced” attorneys.

Abalos made the announcement in a command conference last week with ranking officials of the National Capital Region Police Office, headed by the director, Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo Jr.

The initiative could raise concerns that the local police would become indebted or beholden to the mayor, but Abalos said this would not be an issue and that the local government “would not in any way interfere with the operations of policemen.”

“For one thing, I pity the policeman who, after performing his duties, will only be facing criminal charges. Who will be his lawyer? Do we have funds for this? How much does the policeman earn for him to afford one?” he said during the conference.

Businessmen and other private donors would be asked to add to the fund, according to Mandaluyong City police chief Senior Supt. Florendo Quibuyen.

A committee will be formed— composed of a representative from the city’s legal department, the chief of police, and possibly the city council—to approve the release of funds based on certain parameters, Abalos said.

For example, the committee would check if the case filed against the police officer was “service-related,” he added.

The mayor cited the cases usually filed by suspected drug lords to harass local policemen who had launched crackdowns or conducted buy-bust operations. “If the committee finds that the policeman rightfully performed his duty, we will pay for his legal expenses,” he said, adding that the city government may even assign its own team of lawyers to the case.

The PNP provides its personnel with defense lawyers, but Quibuyen observed that some of them, though proficient in preparing legal documents, don’t have ample “experience” in actual trials.

“I’m not belittling their abilities, but sometimes they are not that experienced, (which shows when) they start appearing in court,” Quibuyen said.

Like Abalos, he said the question of policemen losing their neutrality toward the local government was no longer an issue.

“For years, the city government has been helping us with other things—patrol cars, gasoline—and it is tolerated by the PNP because (the organization) acknowledges that it really lacks these things and that it needs the help of the local government,” he said.