SC compels gov’t to submit papers on drug war

BAGUIO CITY – The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday ordered the government to submit all documents pertaining to the all-out drive against illegal drugs, particularly on the number of per­sons killed and dates, places, and reports on police operations from July 1, 2016.

In a resolution issued during its full court session here, the SC said the documents that would be sub­mitted to it by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) should be furnished the Free Legal As­sistance Group (FLAG) and the Center for International Law (Cen­terlaw).

FLAG and Centerlaw repre­sented several persons who chal­lenged the constitutionality of the illegal drugs operations being implemented by the Philippine Na­tional Police (PNP) in two petitions filed in 2017.

Centerlaw had earlier prodded the SC to compel the OSG to fur­nish it copies of the documents on the PNP’s illegal drugs operations.

In its motion, Centerlaw said that there is no exemption to the rule that parties — even adverse ones — must be provided copies of any documentary submissions to the court.

It stressed that the documents submitted to the SC by the govern­ment will be rendered useless if they are not given a copy as this would violate the rights of their cli­ents to due process.

“The Court just ordered the So­licitor General to submit the police reports (on illegal drugs operations) to the Supreme Court furnishing copies to petitioners,” Atty. Brian Keith Hosaka, chief of the SC’s pub­lic information office (PIO), said in a press briefing here.

Last year, the SC denied the plea of the PNP to do away with the submission of documents on its illegal drugs operations. The submission of the documents was ordered by the SC after conduct­ing oral arguments on the petitions filed by FLAG and Centerlaw.

After the oral arguments, the SC directed Solicitor General Jose C. Calida – who represented the re­spondents in the two petitions – to submit the names, addresses, and gender of those killed in the illegal drugs operations; the places, dates, and time of the operations; names of PNP personnel who participated in the operations and pre-operation plans; post operation reports; search or warrants of arrest; and names of media, non-government organiza­tions, and barangay representatives present during the operations. (Rey Panaligan)