Philippine Laws -Simplified | Free Legal Advice

Welcome! I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people. Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody. This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice. Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!

Entrapment

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Entrapment is a form of arrest where police resort to ways and means to capture a criminal in the act of committing a crime. Its most common form is the "Buy-bust Operation." It has become increasingly common because of the proliferation of smuggling, drugs and other illegal operations. There is, however, a precaution when using entrapment as a means of arrest. Its effectivity is apparently obvious, but can give way to abuse as well. It is recognized as a valid defense that can be raised by an accused and partakes the nature of a confession by avoidance. It's a positive defense.

Entrapment vs. Instigation/Inducement

While entrapment requires the use of intelligence-gathering to identify criminals and devise stratagems to capture them, instigation/inducement employs trickery on the part of the arresting officer, with the criminal intent within his mind, to make an otherwise innocent person commit a crime so he can be arrested.

Entrapment enjoys a presumption of regularity, so that if you want to prove that you're innocent and you were instigated, you have to come up with clear and convincing evidence. One way to get that evidence is to ask the court for a re-investigation.

You have to ask the question of whether the conduct of the police was likely to make a normally law-abiding person commit a crime. Normally, most people will resist the temptation to commit a crime. But if it can be proven that the police acted overbearingly by badgering, cajoling or importuning, or the opposite: appealing to sentiments like pity, sympathy, friendship, desperate illness or even patriotism, there can be a ground for acquittal.

The courts have recognized the fact that there are operatives in the police who have used this method of arrest for illegal and wrongful purposes. One such story is here. I wrote it before. It's the one where the police framed a man who was visiting his brother-in-law. The courts recognize the danger of abuse in entrapment, sometimes calling it "Vice Legislation" and it's important that checks and balances must be made inside and outside the police force to protect the public from dirty cops and the cops themselves from unwanted elements.

1 comments:

Clarisse said...

Thanks very responsive to my research. I've one question though, I cannot seem to find any article on ENTRAPMENT outside of police activity or operation. Does it mean any ENTRAPMENT not done thru IRR of police operation, deemed illegal? So there's no way there can be a legit entrapment outside of the law enforcement even if it's instigation or to induce one to commit a crime, thanks!

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