A human rights activist said two police officers -- one disguised as a delivery man and the other wearing civilian clothes -- served her an invalid arrest warrant right in her office in Quezon City on Tuesday (July 7).
Tinay Palabay, secretary general of human rights group Karapatan, wrote in a Facebook post that she "was served a warrant of arrest this afternoon by a guy who introduced himself" as a local company courier.
"There was this perjury complaint... against officers of Karapatan, myself included, and two other organizations," Palabay wrote. " posted bail and presented myself to an executive judge via online channels. And I got the order for the recall of the warrant since April."
"So I was surprised when a guy who introduced himself as an LBC courier served me the arrest warrant on this case today," she added, noting it happened around 4 p.m.
Palabay said that when she returned to the delivery boy to present him the recall order, another man in plainclothes also appeared. They eventually identified themselves as police officers.
"Actually nagmaang-maangan pa yung LBC guy na parang hi-nire lang siya. Tapos noong hinihingi ko na 'yung ID, doon sinabi noong nagpakilalang pulis, na pulis din 'yung isa (Actually, the delivery guy played it dumb and made it seem that he was hired. But when I asked for his ID, the one who first identified himself as a policeman admitted that they were both police officers)," she told the Manila Bulletin in an interview on Tuesday night.
Palabay said she asked the police officers why they were only serving her today a warrant that was already recalled more than two months ago.
"Well, said they didn't receive any copy tapos kahapon lang daw nila na-receive yung arrest warrant (and they just received the arrest warrant yesterday)," she said.
Palabay said she found the policemen's reason "quite unbelievable."
"How hard is it for the court to give ... it took them, if indeed what the police is saying is true, two and a half months?" she said.
Palabay said their group's lawyers have already informed the Quezon City court regarding the incident.
She also called out the "illegalities" in the police's actions.
"Our lawyer said, there are illegalities doon sa ginawa (with what they did). Everything, on the misrepresentation of the LBC, tapos naka-plainclothes sila (they were in plainclothes), they didn't introduce themselves as arresting officers, they didn't read me my Miranda rights," she said.