By Atty. Theodore Te UP Collge of Law
[image: Ted Te] <http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile&id=757798784> Marcos Lives! Share Today at 10:17am DISCLAIMER: I am not a fan of Ted Failon. I exercise my rights everytime he is on air by turning the channel to another one or switching to another station. Notwithstanding this, I do not think that what the DOJ and the police are doing is right, let alone legal. This is the law that the cops resurrected (courtesy of Mr. Raul Gonzales, I understand) in the Ted Failon case. It is vintage Marcos. ----------- PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 1829 PENALIZING OBSTRUCTION OF APPREHENSION AND PROSECUTION OF CRIMINAL OFFENDERS WHEREAS, crime and violence continue to proliferate despite the sustained vigorous efforts of the government to effectively contain them; WHEREAS, to discourage public indifference or apathy towards the apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders, it is necessary to penalize acts which obstruct or frustrate or tend to obstruct or frustrate the successful apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND, E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law do hereby decree and order the following: Section 1. The penalty of prision correccional in its maximum period, or a fine ranging from 1,000 to 6,000 pesos, or both, shall be imposed upon any person who knowingly or willfully obstructs, impedes, frustrates or delays the apprehension of suspects and the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases by committing any of the following acts: (a) preventing witnesses from testifying in any criminal proceeding or from reporting the commission of any offense or the identity of any offender/s by means of bribery, misrepresentation, deceit, intimidation, force or threats; (b) altering, destroying, suppressing or concealing any paper, record, document, or object, with intent to impair its verity, authenticity, legibility, availability, or admissibility as evidence in any investigation of or official proceedings in, criminal cases, or to be used in the investigation of, or official proceedings in, criminal cases; (c) harboring or concealing, or facilitating the escape of, any person he knows, or has reasonable ground to believe or suspect, has committed any offense under existing penal laws in order to prevent his arrest prosecution and conviction; (d) publicly using a fictitious name for the purpose of concealing a crime, evading prosecution or the execution of a judgment, or concealing his true name and other personal circumstances for the same purpose or purposes; (e) delaying the prosecution of criminal cases by obstructing the service of process or court orders or disturbing proceedings in the fiscal's offices, in Tanodbayan, or in the courts; (f) making, presenting or using any record, document, paper or object with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation of, or official proceedings in, criminal cases; (g) soliciting, accepting, or agreeing to accept any benefit in consideration of abstaining from, discounting, or impeding the prosecution of a criminal offender; (h) threatening directly or indirectly another with the infliction of any wrong upon his person, honor or property or that of any immediate member or members of his family in order to prevent such person from appearing in the investigation of, or official proceedings in, criminal cases, or imposing a condition, whether lawful or unlawful, in order to prevent a person from appearing in the investigation of or in official proceedings in, criminal cases; (i) giving of false or fabricated information to mislead or prevent the law enforcement agencies from apprehending the offender or from protecting the life or property of the victim; or fabricating information from the data gathered in confidence by investigating authorities for purposes of background information and not for publication and publishing or disseminating the same to mislead the investigator or to the court. If any of the acts mentioned herein is penalized by any other law with a higher penalty, the higher penalty shall be imposed. Section 2. If any of the foregoing acts is committed by a public official or employee, he shall in addition to the penalties provided thereunder, suffer perpetual disqualification from holding public office. Section 3. This Decree shall take effect immediately. Done in the City of Manila, this 16th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and eighty-one. ------- Tell me where in the decree washing of the scene of the crime would fall. I suspect they would say (b). I would advise them to read it again, carefully. NOWHERE IN THIS DECREE does it authorize warrantless arrests. Even under the most liberal interpretation of Rule 113, sec. 5(a) and (b) of the Rules of Court, a warrantless arrest of the helpers, the driver, the inlaws and even Failon himself would not be justified. The policemen who ordered the warrantless arrests of the driver, the helpers and even the in-laws of Ted Failon should be FIRED, CHARGED, TRIED, CONVICTED AND SENTENCED for violating the law and the rights of those they arrested. If the PNP Chief does not do this pronto, he is equally guilty. If Mr. Gonzales does not order the charges to be filed against the police, he is equally guilty. It offends me to see cops doing this to helpless people and to have them mugging it up on national television. It sickens me to see such brazen impunity and gross incompetence on display. It angers me that they are NOT THE ONES IN JAIL right this very minute. it also offends me to see a particular government employee force herself on our national consciousness for the free media minutes. For once, I agree with Mr. Gonzales on his estimation of her mental condition. Friendly advise to her: just do your work, quietly and without exalting yourself; your reward is in heaven--unless gusto mo nang kunin ka na ni Lord now na. What I think everyone should remember is this: a woman passed away. And whatever one may think of Ted Failon and the jury's still out on what actually happened to the late Trina Etong, the police would be well-advised to treat this case as they would an ordinary case and not as a way of projecting themselves on tv and radio. What everyone should remember also is this: there are bigger, worse and more heinous crimes. Why are the cops and Raul Gonzales not going after them? Take a look at item (a) of PD 1829, recall JOCJOC, recall ROMY NERI, and think of who ordered these witnesses to stonewall and not to testify? Take a look at item (d) and recall JOSE PIDAL, both the elected one and the unelected one. Take your pick who you want to see in jail. Give Ted Failon and his kids a break. Let Trina Etong rest in peace. -- spanx' blog: http://spankyenriquez.blogspot.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gimik" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gimik?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
