"Our laws are a reflection of our culture. Our culture does not condone the torture of innocent and defenseless creatures. And we as a society believe all God's creatures should be treated humanely."
Allan Almoite, the man who was mistaken to be one of the members of the country's most watched terrorist group – abu sayyaf sought PNP or the Philippine National Police for P470 million.
For 940 days, Almoite was being deprived of Liberty. In 2006, he was arrested in Valenzuela and was imprisoned for three years. He suffered tortures during his captivity. However, due to lack of evidence from the accusation, the court had cleared him.
Almoite's filing of case against PNP is such a good thing to instill especially to the police that they should be very careful in accusing and arresting people. Being accused and imprisoned for long years is like being deprived from the never ending possibilities one might have and experience when out from jail.
Being violated from the mistaken accusation from the PNP, Almoite now really has the right to make them pay. He had suffered from tortures despite the fact that he's not really part of the abu sayyaf.
According to the law, any person accused of terrorism but is later acquitted is entitled to damages of P500,000 for each day he is jailed. Almoite is also entitled to receive P1 million in moral damages, P1 million in exemplary damages, P10 million in attorneys’ fees, not including the P10,000 appearance fee per hearing and other costs of the lawsuit.
Almoite is actually requiring PNP P470-m for the damages from being imprisoned for 3 years.
The PNP is the one responsible for the damages since the law states that amount of damages shall be automatically charged against the appropriations of the police agency that filed the charges against the accused.
The charges Almoite had filed will just serve the police right. The money he is ought to receive could or could not be enough. If he was not imprisoned, he could have had a lot in the world. It's just not he's capability of working and providing his family their needs that were affected from his imprisonment, but also his reputation as a person. Because of the accusation, the world now sees and looks at him differently. Also, he suffered physically through tortures. He also suffered emotional disturbances because of the accusation.
It's never easy to deal with situations like this. It's never easy to wake up one day in your life, and you're already in jail paying a crime you never committed, suffering physically, emotionally and being damaged morally when you really shouldn't be.
according to the law, no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law..
ReplyDeleteFor better law.. no man should above the law, no law breakers and abusive of the laws..
ReplyDeletebut our laws are too sluggish.. to prove an innocent man... it takes even a lifetime to prove it...
In the case at bar, SEC. 50. of R.A. No. 9372 provides that: Upon acquittal, any person who is accused of terrorism shall be entitled to the payment of damages in the amount of Five hundred thousand pesos (P500,000.00) for every day that he or she has been detained or deprived of liberty or arrested without a warrant as a result of such an accusation. The amount of damages shall be automatically charged against the appropriations of the police agency or the Anti-Terrorism Council that brought or sanctioned the filing of the charges against the accused. The award of damages mentioned above shall be without prejudice to the right of the acquitted accused to file criminal or administrative charges against those responsible for charging him with the case of terrorism. Hence, the payment of damages in the amount of Five hundred thousand pesos a day should be granted to Ali upon his acquittal. No further proceedings or actions shall be taken in order to claim the said damages. And the fact that PNP tortured Ali when he was still detained is, without a doubt, against the Law because it impairs his freewill. Ali can file criminal or administrative charges against those responsible for charging him with the case of terrorism.
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