Rights lawyers assert: Police no authority to hold Echanis body
No crime committed by lawyer, paralegal
MANILA, Philippines — Groups of rights lawyers are backing their colleagues accused of "misrepresentation" and obstruction of justice while performing their duty for the family of slain peasant leader Randall Echanis.
Sentra and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers slammed the police’s arrest of paralegal Paolo Colabres and reported accusation against lawyer Luz Perez of “evading” arrest.
Wee hours of Tuesday, police arrested Colabres and brought him to Camp Karingal to file obstruction of justice complaint against him. A GMA News report meanwhile said Perez evaded arrest. This as police took away the body of Echanis from St. Peter's Funeral Chapel, the funeral home chosen by the family, and transferred to Pink Petals Memorial Homes.
The STAR reported on Tuesday that Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas said there was no proper coordination on the transfer of the body from the Pink Petals Funeral Home. The Metro Manila top cop said Colabres and Perez claimed the body was that of their relative and told employees that they coordinated with the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection for the transfer of the cadaver to another funeral parlor.
Sentra, counsel of the Echanis family, refuted police claims that Perez and Colabres did not coordinate with police. They pointed out that Perez was at the police’s CIDU and Scene of the Crime Operations offices from Monday morning until Tuesday afternoon.
Perez, too, was empowered to process the release of the remains, as Erlinda, widow of Echanis, executed a Special Power of Attorney and designated the lawyer as her representative. The lawyer can thus “claim the body of her (Erlinda) murdered husband and to sign relevant documents to process the release of the cadaver,” the NUPL said in a separate statement.
“Perez and Colabres had been in constant communication and coordination with the QCPD to release the body of Echanis to his family since Day 1,” NUPL added, as they slammed the police’s claims of “misrepresentation” as “downright falsehood.”
Identity of the body
Police snatched the body of Echanis from his grieving wife on the night he was killed. Police has been insisting that the man killed is a certain “Manuel Santiago,” citing an ID they recovered, and not Anakpawis chairperson and peace consultant Echanis. This is despite the widow positively identifying her husband’s body.
But Sentra's Executive Director Jobert Pahilga said police “did not even conduct an investigation, even for a show, to determine where the ID came from.”
“It might have been planted there by his killers to muddle the situation and create this kind of confusing situation so that the family could not properly claim his cadaver. And the police can dispose of his dead body as they wish,” he added.
Sentra also said Colabres was sent to the funeral home to specifically stand guard over the cadaver of Echanis, to prevent any person who might claim they are relatives of “Manuel Santiago” and ask the body to be cremated.
NUPL said: "Clearly, no criminal act was and has been committed by Atty. Perez and Mr. Colabres for the police to 'arrest' them in first place."
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters on Tuesday that the police must explain the need for transferring the body to a different funeral.
Widow appeals for her husband's body, time to mourn
Erlinda, meanwhile, continued to appeal that the body of her slain husband be returned to them and that they may be allowed to properly grieve for Echanis.
“Ang hindi po naming maintidihan ay bakit hino-hold ang nila yung bangkay eh patay na yung tao. Kung may dapat silang imbestigahan hidni yung patay ang iimbestigahan nila kasi patay na yun,” she said.
(What we don’t understand is why they are holding the body. The person is already dead. If there is something that should be investigated, it is not the corpse because the person is already dead.)
“Sana bigyan kami ng pagkakataon na makasama naming maiparamdam naming ang aming pagdadalamhati,” Erlinda added.
(I hope we are given the chance that we can express our grief.)
Rights lawyers meanwhile vowed a day of reckoning for the cops. "You have disrespected the dead. You have psychologically tortured his family. And us who loved Ka Randy. There will be a day of reckoning!" Sentra said.
The NUPL reminded the PNP that lawyers of their duty to represent and protect the interests of people. "Unless the PNP now sees and considers the duties enumerated in the Lawyer’s Oath as crimes and offenses, or the mandate of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers as empty suggestions, then we, dare say that we are not taking this affront against the legal profession, against our ranks sitting down," they said.
"Let us do our work until you stop bungling yours," NUPL added.
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