EDMUND SYDECO y SIONZON vs. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, G.R. No. 202692, November 12, 2014
“x x x.
There can be no quibble that P/Insp. Aguilar and his apprehending team are persons in authority or agents of a person in authority manning a legal checkpoint.
But surely petitioner’s act of exercising one’s right against unreasonable searches30 to be conducted in the middle of the night cannot, in context, be equated to disobedience let alone resisting a lawful order in contemplation of Art. 151 of the RPC.
As has often been said, albeit expressed differently and under dissimilar circumstances, the vitality of democracy lies not in the rights it guarantees, but in the courage of the people to assert and use them whenever they are ignored or worse infringed.31
Moreover, there is, to stress, nothing in RA 4136 that authorized the checkpoint-manning policemen to order petitioner and his companions to get out of the vehicle for a vehicle and body search.
And it bears to emphasize that there was no reasonable suspicion of the occurrence of a crime that would allow what jurisprudence refers to as a "stop and frisk" action.
As SPO4 Bodino no less testified, the only reason why they asked petitioner to get out of the vehicle was not because he has committed a crime, but because of their intention to invite him to Station 9 so he could rest before he resumes driving.
But instead of a tactful invitation, the apprehending officers, in an act indicative of overstepping of their duties, dragged the petitioner out of the vehicle and, in the process of subduing him, pointed a gun and punched him on the face.
X x x.”
