Take refresher course on criminal procedure –Roque
By Genalyn Kabiling
The three young lawyers arrested during a police search in a Makati bar should take a “refresher course” on criminal procedure, including the rule against meddling in a police investigation, Malacañang said Monday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque (YANCY LIM/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said lawyers should not have interfered with the policemen carrying out a search warrant in a bar where a previous anti-illegal drug operation was conducted.
“If you ask me as a law professor, those three lawyers need a refresher course on criminal procedure. Lawyers have absolutely no involvement in an ongoing police investigation,” Roque said during a Palace press briefing.
“Their role is when there is already a pending action in the prosecutor’s office, if there is anything that was wrong in the police investigation, then they can alleged this either in the determination of probable cause or in the trial itself,” he added.
Policemen recently detained three lawyers for alleged obstruction of justice, among others, during the implementation of a search warrant at Time bar in Makati City. The lawyers, who refused to identify themselves and their clients, allegedly tried to prevent the police officers from searching the area.
The Makati police earlier conducted a raid on the Makati bar and seized several sachets of illegal drugs.
Roque maintained that the lawyers could only observe but not interfere in a police investigation.
“When you prevent a police from affecting the service of a search warrant, in my mind that’s really obstruction of justice. Ibang usapin kung walang search warrant,” he said.
“From the video, it’s apparent, they need a refresher course on what lawyers can and cannot do and the legal profession should in fact, use this video to tell law students what they can and cannot do in the course of an ongoing police investigation,” he added.
Roque also found “ridiculous” that the lawyers were concealing the identity of their client while meddling in the police operation.
“They should not even have been there. And what business did they have being in the area, being where the search warrant was being served, without being identifying who their client was, that’s ridiculous,” he said.
“You do not acquire a right to be in a police investigation, just because you claim to be representing a client that you don’t want to divulge,” he added.
Roque also urged the police to be extra patient with the young lawyers who were still learning the ropes on criminal procedure.