A female Grab driver was arrested and hit with a car door by a policeman in civilian clothes after she asked him to move his stalled vehicle blocking the driveway of a mall in Taguig City Tuesday evening, October 6.

Grab driver Florence Norial, 26, was detained from around 7:40 pm on Tuesday evening up to as late as Wednesday afternoon after she was accused of direct assault, alarm and scandal, and disobedience to authority from the encounter.

This developed after Florence asked a driver to move his vehicle which was blocking the exit driveway of Grace Mall in Taguig City. At that time, she just picked up her Grab passenger from the mall.

It turned out the driver of the vehicle blocking the passage was a certain Captain Ronald Saquilayan

“Help pls! Nasa…police station po ako ngayon. Gusto po ako ikulong. Nag pick up ako pasahero sa Starbucks, ngayon kahit anong pakiusap ko s [pulis] na nasa harap ay ayaw umalis,” Florence said in a Facebook status on Tuesday 8:41 pm, before she was detained.

(Help please. I am at a police statioon now. They want to jail me. I picked up a passenger at Starbucks, and whatever pleaded I made to ask the police to move, he still didn’t want to leave.)

Mirza Miguel Shahzad – Florence’s boyfriend who spoke and stayed with her before she was locked away – denied the allegations of the police, providing an hour-by-hour account of the events to Rappler in an email.

Narrating Florence’s and his experience on Tuesday evening, Miguel said that the policeman was first to hit Florence. He said that Florence only acted on self-defense, and that the charges against her were fabricated, with the help of other personnel of the Taguig City Police.

In a text message to Rappler, Taguig police chief Colonel Celso Rodriguez said Saquilayan was not assigned in their area, but was detailed with the Pateros police. He did not confirm whether they would launch a probe into the incident.

Meanwhile, Pateros police chief Colonel Ramchrisen Haveria Jr confirmed in a phone interview with Rappler, that Saquilayan was assigned with them.

Still, Haveria said Taguig police should investigate the incident as it happened under their territorial responsibility.

In a text message to Rappler, Grab Philippines spokesperson Nicka Hosaka said they were “already investigating the matter” and have “reached out to the family of the driver.”

What led to the arrest?

At around 7 pm on Tuesday evening, October 6, Florence was taking a passenger to the Starbucks branch in Grace Mall. They stopped at the driveway of the mall because a stalled dark grey Ford Ranger blocked the passage.

Florence flashed her headlights and honked her horn, but the vehicle did not move. She walked over to the stalled vehicle and knocked on the driver’s door. Still, she was ignored.

Florence asked the assistance of the guard nearby, and they knocked on the Ranger’s door once more.

This time the door swung open “suddenly and forcefully,” Miguel said, knocking Florence down to the bushes beside the driveway and injuring her.

On impulse and in self-defense, Florence stood up and slapped the driver.

The driver then said he was a police officer and arrested Florence.

The arrest

The man who arrested Florence was wearing a printed black shirt and camouflage pants. He hastily arrested her without reading her rights.

“He then forced her to the walls outside of Starbucks to cuff her as he asked his daughter (who was inside the Ford Ranger) to get his handcuffs inside the said vehicle,” Miguel said.

In her last Facebook status before her arrest, Florence attached a video of her argument with the driver of the stalled vehicle. In the video, the man said “I am police Captain Ronald Saquilayan,” and said he was arresting Florence “for hurting me, for hitting me.” Aside from the vague reason for the arrest, the police officer did not read her rights which is the standard protocol.