MAYBE these distinguished members of our Philippine National Police, after admitting that they are unaware of Administrative Order 103 that suspended all foreign travel as part of the government’s “austerity measures”, should again claim that they are not also aware that ignorance of the law does not exempt anybody. Otherwise drug dealers can claim that they are not aware that they are selling shabu and they thought it was only tawas or calling up a Comelec commisioner during election time asking for a safe victory margin is only a lapse in judgement.
Russel Fernandez of Chiba, Japan via e-mail

14 Feedbacks on "Ignorance of the law"
J Arevalo
I hope and pray that since POLICEMEN were involved in this shameful corruption, our politicians will not be COWARD not to push and finish this investigations and the sooner, the better. Heads MUST roll …..at nakakaawa na AT nakakahiya na ang nangyayari sa Pilipinas !!!!
ISA PA: ITONG ‘ JOKE-JOKE BOLATE’ CASE!!!!! MAY MANGYARI KAYA DITO????
rey
The euro generals knew what they’ve done was wrong. They are just making “palusot”. I don’t believe their alibis. Many government officials, civilian and military, use their position to enrich themselves. This is the sad state of the country. It is a good thing that finally Bishop Lagdameo called the attention of PGMA. Hope and pray that they will listen before it is too late for all of us.
mang goding
Ignorance of the law…
There is a difference between a law and administrative order.
Administrative Order is an order, guideline policy within the department.
Administrative Order can be changed every now and then to conform with the changing times and situation.
An existing order can be changed in an hour, in a day, weeks, months or years. There is no grace period for its effectivity to take effect, it is effective once out.
Law is permanent.
It cannot be changed by whims or caprices of somebody.
Laws must conform to the constitution.
Such changes in existing law must be amended thru bills by the legislative body.
Such amendment or addendum will take effect 6 months after publication.
Defense of Ignorance by the PNP generals are acceptable.
Such changes in administrative order is not judicial notice for everybody to know. It is confined to the department alone.
Tha analogy of ignorance of the law is wrong.
The generals were right, they don’t know the existing administrative order for orders are aplenty within the PNP.
For me it is a mistake, a stupid mistake by the generals in good faith.
There is no proof to defraud.
DOM
Laws are not made to be broken. It does not cover the g-men. It only applies to the detractors.
kayana2
inre: ignorance of law
de la paz and company has an ulterior motive and they knew from the gitgo what they were all doing. i”ll bet that they all did’nt even have to check at the intrl. outbound pax checkpoint.
money they were carrying were to be use for something that is unethical and corrupt.
kayana2sends
lasvegas.
p.s…here in lasvegas, we have more retired and former paf personnel,both officer and enlisted: from majgen.to sgt, in comaparison to the other states, and they all talks.
Isidro C. Valencia
Ms. Russel’s analogy of attending a very important seminar of generals against drug peddling is a sophism.
The latter is a negative factor, while getting added knowldge to reinforce police work is a positive dimension.
Doria’s acknowlegment of ignorance of law is in good faith while drug dealer before hand knew fully that what they are doing are illegal. Do you think any drug dealer will sell his goods openly because he does not know it is illegal?
The logic is illogical.
Yes, the Generals would want to give back their cash advances and reimburse their expenses if be allowed. They can be charged of Administrative Order 103, and have a penalty of life sentence like a drug dealer? I don’t think so.
The guilt of the General was they made a cash advance more than the required amount needed to their travel, but that was necessary as part of “contingency.”
You mean you will go to a war without extra ammnunitions? That is not a tactical move for a general.
Jim
Contingency? Who would Dela Paz fool. Maybe he’s thinking Filipinos are that stupid to believe such shameless lie. Carrying 7 million pesos just in case “may magkasakit or madisgrasya”. Is he that ignorant? Doesn’t he know that it would only take 5 minutes to transfer money via Western Union anytime, anywhere in the world. Ignorance is real ignorance for those who willfully ignore. Now we know that we have so many generals that are IGNORANT. We could only pray, Lord bless the Philippines and deliver us from our ignorant leaders.
DOM
Mang Goding,
Where do we put the traffic regulations? Those traffic cops always say ignorance of the law exempts no one well, until you come across.
Spooky
IGNORANCE IS THE LAW! this is the real truth..JUSTICe is BLIND as long as you have someone who needs a KIDNEY transplant run the DOJ….
I have a theory, those cops never had the money when they went to MOSCOw, but these cops had a chance to deal RUSSIAN MAFIA while at the INTERPOL convention…Viola, instant money to launder….they hid the money in parts. most of them where hidden inside these COPS’ wives….most of them were cover with used underwear, so the airport police would let it go due to the stench of smell..unfortunately russians are familar will bad odor…so they were caught….now they are improvising some documents to prove that the money is legit….
who needs paper money nowadays when you can use the cards (Credit or Debit cards)…..the paper trail leads to the corruption, and we should jail these corrupt cops or might as well line them all up for firing squad, they dont even deserve my pity!
mang goding
PNP generals “excess baon” was returned.
Yan ang sinasabi ko, nauna pa ang daldal at haka haka na keso galing sa drug money, jueteng money, etc, etc….
Ngayon sino ang napahiya, eh di yong nag-akusa.
Mababait naman pala ang ating general, lmarunong magsoli ng baon.
Ako nga pag sobrang baon hindi ko na sinosoli sa tatay ko.
Lynn
If the cash advance by De La Paz is legitimate, why then did Versoza order the filing of criminal and administrative charges against him, three other officers not part of the delegation and the disbursing officer, Rodriguez? Is he just covering his rear end?
The DIDM has found that the release of the P6.9M contingency fund was unlawful, hence the charges.
Why was De La Paz’s wife carrying the money, when she was not an official member of the delegation? Why was she carrying cash … haven’t these people ever heard of debit and credit cards, or even travelers checks? More importantly, why was she there in the first place?
Contingency may have been necessary (wink wink, nudge nudge) but the fact that it was an unlawfully released and undeclared doesn’t sound kosher to me. Why all the secrecy? There is something decidedly fishy going on there. Where there’s smoke, there is fire.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse in this case. These officers, of all people, should be more fully cognizant of the law. Doria’s lame excuse of “We were ordered to go and we were just following orders.” for not knowing about and violating AO 103 suspending foreign trips as an austerity measure is completely disingenuous. 8 generals and the Chair of the National Police Commission couldn’t possibly be that ignorant, can they? If they were, our country is indeed in big trouble.
These 8 generals did not declare the money in the Philippines, nor did they do so in Russia? Are they going to use ignorance of the law as excuses too?
maria makiling
mang goding alam mo ba piinagsasabi mo? lumayo ka na naman sa katotohanan…di mo sinasauli baon mo eh noon pa man ganon na pala gawi mo kaya pala ganun na lamang proteksiyon mo sa malacanang mafia at arroyo corrupt-poration..pareho pareho kayo nagtatakip sa baho, at gumagawa ng baho…
nakakabilib mga pananaw mo…
Boying
ON “EURO GENERALS”: This proves only one thing, and one thing only: PNP is an organization of corrupt police officers.
Somebody might say “hindi naman lahat”.
Question: Sino?
Shame on you!
Lynn
Mang Goding,
Isinauli nila yoong natira kasi nahuli sila. Hindi dahil sa inatake sila ng kanilang konsensiya. Napahiya na, eh. Napilitan tuloy. At least, may natitira pang kaunting hiya.
Ang ipinagtataka ko, bakit walang nagtatanggol kay De La Paz, kahit isa man lang doon sa walong heneral. Maybe they know something we don’t? Kanya kanya na sila, saving their own skin while abandoning the sinking ship. Alam nila kasi na kapag nalunod ang isa sa kanila, lahat sila kasama., kaya take care of #1.
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