By REY PANALIGAN
The Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG), and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to answer two petitions that seek to declare unconstitutional the government’s drive against illegal drugs.
After yesterday’s full court session, the SC set oral arguments on Nov. 21 on the two petitions which also sought protection for the relatives and survivors of drugs operations.
In the first petition, the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) asked the SC to declare as “patently illegal and grossly unconstitutional” the government’s all-out drive against illegal drugs.
The FLAG petition, filed in behalf of the victims of the so-called extrajudicial killings Dave Almora and Rex Aparri, wanted the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the PNP’s Command Memorandum Circular (CMC) No. 16-2016 on “Oplan Double Barrel.”
Named respondents were PNP Chief Director Ronald dela Rosa and Local Governments Secretary Eduardo Ano.
The SC was told that CMC 16-2016 was not formally put in a proper written executive order.
The petition stated that “the PNP’s ‘War on Drugs’ as operationalized under CMC 16-2016 violates the right to life, to due process of law, to be presumed innocent and to a fair trial by expressly authorizing the summary killing of suspected drug offenders in the guise of ‘neutralizing’ or ‘negating’ them.”
Assisted by FLAG chairperson and De La Salle University law school dean Jose Manuel Diokno, the petitioners said that the drive against illegal drugs that has resulted in the deaths of over 7,000 individuals who were killed in both police operations and vigilante killings “violates the right to due process of law, to be presumed innocent, and to a fair trial by doing away with the basic police duty of evidence-gathering and case build-up.”
The petitioners also said that the house-to-house visits being conducted by PNP are unconstitutional because “they are not limited to drug suspects and based on furtive fingers of unknown informants.”
“The PNP’s ‘war on drugs’ has no legal basis because it is based on a mere verbal campaign promise by then candidate Rodrigo Duterte ‘to get rid of illegal drugs’ within the first six months of his terms and is not supported by any executive order, administrative order, memorandum circular, memorandum order or proclamation issued by President Duterte,” they pointed out.