Activist group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) sought the assistance of the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) in retrieving missing cellphones taken from them during a scuffle after police operatives tried to arrest fellow activists during the September 21 commemoration rally.
In their letter to NAPOLCOM Commissioner Atty. Vicente Calinisan, the group demanded “an immediate, impartial, and thorough investigation into the snatching of the mobile phones of two students during the protest along Recto Avenue, Manila.”
A scuffle between the rallyists and police forces ensued after the police officers attempted to arrest two protesters for allegedly spraypainting. The police grabbed the hair, choked, punched, kicked, and dragged the protesters. They were later released for lack of evidence. They sustained multiple contusions and injuries.
After their program at 11:00 AM, as groups marched back to Nicanor Reyes St., two students from the University of the Philippines and Rizal Technological University discovered that their cellphones, an iPhone 15 Plus and a Vivo Y19s, were missing.
The cellphones were later tracked via Find My iPhone at 12:18 PM in Camp Crame and by 12:43 PM it was monitored to be already in Greenhills, San Juan, a known location where stolen cellphones are fenced at a much cheaper price.
The group cited a similar incident that happened in Catarman, Samar, where an intelligence officer forcibly snatched a paralegal’s phone and notes at a protest held yesterday, September 22, at the University of the Eastern Philippines (UEP).
SPARK asked the NAPOLCOM to “immediately initiate an investigation into these cases and secure and examine all relevant evidence: including raw and unedited body-worn camera footage, CCTV recordings, photographs, videos taken by protesters and journalists, statements from the affected students and other witnesses.”
“Especially now that the monsoon season has brought floods that led to multiple face-to-face class suspensions this month alone, those cellphones are crucial for the student activists to attend to their classes,” they explained.
