Eternal Gardens workers counsel asks DOJ to probe recent arrest

MANILA, Philippines —  Lawyers of the two employees of Eternal Gardens Memorial Park who were detained after an alleged stolen grave marker on Thursday asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to look into the proceedings and the arrest. 

This comes after the workers were arrested without a warrant by the Batangas City police on October 13. 

“We filed an administrative complaint to formally ask the DOJ to look into possible irregularities conducted during illegal arrest, inquest proceedings last October 13,” Alex Oco, lawyer of the two employees told reporters in an ambush interview on Thursday.

Furthermore, the lawyers raised concerns regarding the legitimacy of the warrantless arrest and the acquisition of evidence.

The questioning of the two employees during the inquest proceedings was also conducted, despite having no presence of a lawyer, according to them. 

“So anything, any statement, assuming there is, it was given under duress, under threat, so it’s not voluntary. So that alleged evidence should not be accepted,” Oco said in an ambush interview. 

“In fact, the blatant show of power and influence were witnessed by the respondents themselves when the complainant summoned the police authorities to place the respondents under investigation even in the absence of any lawyer and thereafter to implement a warrantless arrest and detain respondents,” the petition also read. 

They also filed a motion to transfer the venue of the preliminary investigation from Batangas City to Manila since the complainant is a prosecutor of the Batangas City prosecutors office according to the petition.

"Ordinarily, motion to inhibit would suffice to address the fear of the party for the bias which the investigating fiscal has against a party. However, it should be emphasized that the complainant is a sitting member of the Office of the City Prosecutor (OCP) of Batangas and the Deputy Prosecutor is the Investigating Fiscal. It would not be far-fetched if the two have influence or at the very least could have gathered sympathy coming from other members of the OCP,” the petition read.

"Although we do not question the competence of other members of the OCP Batangas to resolve this case, our legal counsels who are also providing legal assistance to our employees would not want to risk the liberty of our employees," Eternal Gardens said in a seperate statement.

Based on a complaint against the employees, the marker was worth P20,000. 

The two employees were released after Eternal Gardens posted bail three days after the arrest.

The complainant accused the employee of allegedly stealing and “grinding” the grave marker which one of the employees admitted doing, according to the document sent to the reporters. 

The document likewise said that the employee who allegedly “moved” the grave marker pointed to the other employee who is a part of the memorial park’s management. 

Philstar.com has reached out to the complainant. She refused to give a comment at the moment. 

Meanwhile, Oco said that Eternal Gardens is still probing the “missing” marble marker.