A POLICE official said the Philippine National Police (PNP) did not follow illegal order when it sent some of its personnel to the Senate following President Duterte’s issuance of a proclamation directing the law enforcement agency and the military to arrest Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Benigno Durana said the presence of operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at the Senate on Tuesday is just a form of assistance to the military which is set to take custody of Trillanes on the basis of court martial proceedings.
Durana was reacting to the call of Magdalo partylist Rep. Gary Alejano for the military and the police not to follow illegal orders, as the former stressed that the revocation of the amnesty given to Trillanes and the subsequent arrest order are illegal.
“Number one, it is his opinion and number two, the Philippine National Police does not need to be told what we should not follow illegal orders,” said Durana.
“The President down to the last citizen of this country knows for a fact that the PNP is mandated to enforce the law without fear or favor within the bounds of the law based on our constitutional mandate so definitely it’s so much of a stretch of imagination on the part of anybody to say that we will follow illegal orders,” he added.
Durana stressed that it is not for the PNP to declare whether or not the President’s order is illegal, saying the court is in the best position to declare whether or not a certain order is illegal.
Trillanes and other groups have been questioning the legality of the revocation of the amnesty and the arrest order of the President.
Yesterday, Trillanes himself said that both the police and the military should be careful in dealing with his case since the proclamation order issued against him is purely political harassment.
The military earlier said that the deployment of soldiers outside the Senate premises and its readiness to arrest Trillanes is based on the presumption of regularity on the order of the President, being their commander-in-chief.
Durana, for his part, said that the PNP is always bounded by its constitutional mandate to implement the law.
“We are 101 percent sure that we are constitutionally-mandated to implement the law without fear or favor and anything that we do is based within the bounds of the law,” said Durana. (Aaron Recuenco)