Lawyers assail PNP for ‘delisting’ Delfin Lee from ‘most wanted’ roster

Delfin Lee: Is he off the list? INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A lawyers’ group on Tuesday said the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas had no authority to delist property developer Delfin Lee from the police’s database of persons with outstanding warrant of arrest.

Lee, president of Globe Asiatique, was arrested two weeks ago in Manila in connection with a syndicated estafa complaint filed against him. He questioned the legality of his arrest, saying that the Court of Appeals had ordered the Pampanga Regional Trial Court to lift the warrant for his arrest.

Lee’s camp also claimed that the PNP had taken off his name from the list of most wanted men in the country. The PNP, however, denied it saying they were just in the process of delisting his name, adding that Secretary Roxas had the final say on the matter.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Civil Liberties, led by its president, Roderick P. Vera, said “the foregoing actions of the PNP betrays ignorance of Article VIII, Section 1, of the Constitution which vests exclusively upon the courts judicial power which includes the power to determine whether a warrant of arrest should be implemented or recalled.”

“In the case of Mr. Lee, it is of public knowledge that the government, through the Department of Justice, elevated the decision of the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court. It therefore behooves the PNP to seek direction from the Department of Justice and/or Supreme Court before unilaterally deciding not to implement the warrant.”

“The delisting of Mr. Lee and the prevention of his arrest pursuant to the above-mentioned PNP issuances are an affront to the judiciary as well as to the policies of His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III,” the group further stated.