Caloocan City Mayor Echiverri faces charges for unlawful arrest

Caloocan City Mayor Enrico R. Echiverri is facing criminal charges before the Sandiganbayan for the unlawful arrest of parking attendants of Jadewell Parking Systems Corporation.

In a complainant filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, Jadewell alleged that in a letter issued on July 2004, Mayor Echiverri unjustifiably suspended the on-street pay parking system in Caloocan City managed and operated by complainant. The said parking system was entered into by the City and Jadewell through a Memorandum of Agreement dated January 2005.

Jadewell further alleged that on 22 July 2004, Mayor Echiverri physically prevented three of Jadewell’s parking attendants from proceeding with the operation of the pay parking system and arrested them without warrant. Moreover, Echiverri confiscated their motorcycles and other equipment and forcibly took them to the Mayor’s Office. When they were brought to the Mayor’s Office, photographs of Jadewell employees were taken and subsequently published in a newspaper to show that they had been arrested.

In a Resolution, Acting Ombudsman Orlando C. Casimiro said the Office found probable cause for unlawful arrest had been committed by Echiverri.

He thus ordered that an Information be filed against Echiverri before the Sandiganbayan. Ombudsman Media Bureau