Cop hit by Honeylet to get medal, won’t press charges
The policewoman who sustained an injury on her forehead after Honeylet Avanceña, former President Rodrigo Duterte’s common-law partner, hit her with a cell phone will receive a medal from the Philippine National Police.
However, she has decided to no longer file charges against Avanceña, who hit the officer during the tense PNP operation to arrest Duterte and put him on a plane taking him to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands on March 11.
Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said Friday the Special Action Force officer will receive the Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting and be granted a three-day leave.
‘Act of the enemy’
The medal is awarded to PNP personnel who have been “wounded in action against an enemy as a direct result of an act of the enemy.”
Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo, the PNP spokesperson, told reporters it was the police officer’s “personal decision” to not pursue charges against Avanceña, acknowledging that what happened was “part of the hazard of [the] job.”
Fajardo added that the policewoman, whose identity was not made public, said she just needed to recover and would soon be back on duty.
The PNP earlier said it was considering filing a direct assault complaint against Avanceña following the incident on Tuesday night at the VIP lounge of Kalayaan Hall in Villamor Air Base.
Assigned to the women
The policewoman was part of the PNP team, which included more than a dozen female officers, tasked to arrest Duterte at the request of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and on orders from the ICC for crimes against humanity related to his brutal war on drugs.
Fajardo said the female police officers were deployed “to restrain” Avanceña and her daughter Veronica “Kitty” Duterte, who were preventing the ex-president’s transfer to a vehicle that would take him to the plane bound for The Hague, the Netherlands.
A video released by the PNP showed that the police officer, before being hit by Avanceña, was the one trying to hold Kitty Duterte back.
The officer was brought to a medical facility for treatment.
Maximum tolerance
Fajardo said the PNP team exercised maximum tolerance despite “all the insults and curses” from the Dutertes during the 12-hour standoff.
During the confrontation, Avanceña was heard telling the policemen in Filipino: “This is how you repay him for everything he did for you?”
Duterte was also heard saying “I’m not a criminal that you can just arrest; show me some respect for being a former president.”
