PNP has no authority to hold Echanis' body — lawyer
The legal counsel of slain peace consultant and peasant leader Randy Echanis said the Philippine National Police (PNP) has no power to take his remains from his family.
Sentra executive director Jobert Pahilga, who is a legal counsel of the Echanis family, said there is “no law that gives power to PNP to seize the body of a deceased even assuming that that they will do it for purposes of criminal investigation.”
Echanis, 72, and Louie Tagapia, 48, were found dead early Monday in a rented house in Novaliches, Quezon City. Echanis was stabbed to death and sustained gunshot wounds in the head.
Echanis’ body was taken by police from St. Peter’s Funeral Chapel and brought to Pink Petals Memorial Homes in La Loma, Quezon City even though his family already got custody of his body.
Police claimed the victim was Manuel Santiago after retrieving an identity card in the crime scene, despite Echanis' wife Erlinda positively identifying and claiming his remains. They also want a DNA test to be conducted on Echanis to prove his identity.
Erlinda demanded the release of her husband’s body from the funeral parlor where he was taken.
“This adds insult to our injury. It is both inhuman and unjust for the remains of my husband to be held under police custody and deprive us of having a proper and private mourning," she said.
“Why is my husband's cadaver under investigation in the first place? It should be the perpetrators that should be hunted down and persecuted, not the lifeless body of my husband," she said.
According to Pahilga, under Article 306 of the Civil Code, “the duty and the right to make arrangements for the funeral of a relative shall be in accordance with the order established for support.”
He also cited the Family Code that stated “the order shall first come from the spouse.”
Echanis’ lawyer reminded the PNP under Article 309, “any person who shows disrespect to the dead, or wrongfully interferes with a funeral, shall be liable to the family of the deceased for damages, material and moral.”