Four police officers who were seen on a video frisking a naked female drug suspect inside a Makati City police station have been relieved, said Southern Police District director Tomas Apolinario Jr.
“Those involved were relieved from their positions and unit. They will be investigated and appropriate administrative and criminal cases will be filed against them. The PNP will not tolerate these illegal acts perpetrated by our personnel,” Apolinario said in a text message.
Relieved were Senior Insp. Valmark Funelas, Police Officer 1 Stephanie Limhap, PO1 Heizelle Maramag and PO1 Francis Intia.
The video reportedly recorded in March 2017, also drew the ire of PNP chief Oscar Albayalde.
“I am deeply saddened by this viral video going around in the Internet of another alleged case of abuse committed by some of our personnel. Let me state this clearly—we strongly condemn this kind of deviant behavior in our ranks,” Albayalde said.
Metro Manila police director Guillermo Eleazar seconded Albayalde. “You can say that you are inspecting the bodies of the suspects but not in that way, that the woman herself is naked in front of men. And we can see that they were even laughing.”
The police officers involved claimed that the woman wasn’t actually a drug suspect and that the strip-search shown in video was actually a demo.
Makati City police chief Rogelio Simon said he was told that the woman was paid to take part in a demonstration of cops frisking a drug suspect.
“I’m really angry because what was shown on the video is really wrong,” Simon said in Filipino in an interview with radio dzMM.
Just recently, the SPD sacked two police officers, also assigned in Makati City, for alleged mishandling persons arrested for violating local ordinances.
They were Senior Insp. Aaron Elago, commander of Makati City-Police Community Precinct-7, and SPO2 James Teano, desk officer of the same police precinct.
The two relieved officers were placed at the police station’s Holding Section “following a report of an alleged abuse of discretion of authority when they rounded up night idlers or tambay in their respective area of responsibility and brought them to their police precinct for verification even without any valid violation of city ordinances.”
The Gabriela Women’s Party on Thursday denounced alleged excesses committed by the Makati police in the strip search it conducts among arrested drug suspects, with females as the main targets.
Earlier reports said that Makati policemen require arrested suspects to disrobe. They are then subjected to close inspection to search for drugs that may have been inserted in their private parts. The policemen allegedly focus on female suspects.
Reps. Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Party-list, members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, condemned the practice following the release of a video by a former anti-drug operative.
“This speaks of how the police, despite attending human rights training, are disturbingly using women for their amusement and satisfaction with gross disregard for the rights of the detained,” the two lawmakers said in a statement.
“This is a stern reminder that women have always been easy targets of abuse by the police, just like the gang rape of a female drug suspect by Olongapo cops right inside the police station,” they added.
The Gabriela also denounced efforts by Makati City police chief Rogelio Simon to downplay the issue by saying that it was a strip search demo.
“We want this incident, which took place in March 2017, investigated by the House of Representatives and see if this practice is also being carried out by other police units,” Brosas said.
“Sacking implicated police officers should not excuse them from graver liabilities and penalties,” she added. With Maricel V. Cruz