EDITORIAL - Evidence custodian

After his explanations were greeted with derisive laughter, police Director Eduardo Matillano finally returned yesterday a Jaguar sports car that he said he had taken for "safekeeping" following the arrest of its owner in a drug bust last year. The return of the impounded vehicle, it was emphasized, was on orders of Director General Edgar Aglipay, Phi-lippine National Police chief.

The present PNP leadership should have learned some lessons from Panfilo Lacson, who as national police chief had ordered cops to stop using vehicles impounded as evidence in criminal cases. Most of the vehicles were eventually returned to their civilian owners, some of whom had complained that they had seen their vehicles being used by cops, and not for patrols but for what looked like personal purposes. The return of the vehicles was widely applauded by the public.

The PNP can certainly use more patrol cars. But if cops want to borrow impounded vehicles even for legitimate police operations, they should at least seek permission from the owners. In gray areas – such as when the owner of a Jaguar is an accused shabu manufacturer — using the vehicle or even parking it in a private garage ostensibly for safekeeping must be covered by a court order. Under normal circumstances, expropriating property without the owner’s knowledge – especially something as expensive as a Jaguar – is classified as a crime. Even if it’s to save the vehicle from being cannibalized, or simply to give one’s private garage cachet that the vehicle’s "safekeeper" can’t afford otherwise.

If official evidence custodians of the PNP aren’t up to the job or lack the facilities for safekeeping, the problems must be addressed properly. The PNP and other concerned agencies should draw up regulations governing the safekeeping of evidence, especially luxury vehicles that police officers may be tempted to borrow. The administration often harps about the need to live within one’s means in these tough times. Public officials, including police officers, are supposed to set the example. Displaying a Jaguar in one’s garage is simply not the way to do it.