PNP: ‘Berated’ cops can sue Napolcom exec

THE NATIONAL Police Commission (Napolcom) official who was caught on video berating two policemen in Cavite province may face both administrative and criminal charges for her actions, according to the spokesperson of the Philippine National Police.

This will depend on the two policemen who were confronted by Ana Maria Paglinawan of the Napolcom-National Capital Region office, said Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, who noted how the officers showed restraint in the encounter.

“It is part of a policeman’s job. It is expected on the part of the police to show maximum tolerance especially if some people are trying to provoke them into doing something against the law,” Mayor said Thursday, a day after the Napolcom relieved Paglinawan of her post as acting Napolcom-NCR administrative division chief and placed her under investigation.

Mayor explained that the policemen, being the “aggrieved party,” can file a case against Paglinawan. “The elements of oral defamation are present. The police can initiate a criminal and administrative complaint against the concerned individual.”

Asked if the PNP will give legal support to the policemen should they press charges, Mayor explained that the PNP extends legal assistance to policemen who end up being respondents in cases connected to their work as law enforcers.

“But if the policeman initiates the complaint, you don’t need a lawyer there since you represent the organization. The fiscal (or prosecutor) will represent the complainant,” Mayor said. The PNP spokesperson withheld the names of the two officers.

A now-viral video posted on a Facebook page on Oct. 27 showed Paglinawan confronting the policemen on the street, demanding that they hand over their IDs while accusing them of harassing her nephew. She was later seen using her mobile phone, talking to someone she addressed as “colonel.”

She also vented her ire on the person taking the video, identified in the Facebook post as Mike Almanza. The angry Paglinawan then took a few steps and pushed a woman, who was then carrying an infant, when she saw her also taking a video of the incident.

Almanza, who described himself as an elected official in the community, said the woman who was pushed was his wife and that she was carrying their 1-year-old child. The whole episode, he said, saw Paglinawan “insulting me, the police and our neighbors.”

According to Almanza’s post, the incident happened at Justinville Panapaan VII in Bacoor. Paglinawan, he said, showed up in the area after a neighborhood disturbance caused by her relative prompted the barangay chair to call for the police.