The Philippine National Police has welcomed the decision of the Court of Appeals to dismiss the petition filed by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers against the supposed surveillance and profiling of its members.
Senior Supt. Bernard Banac, PNP spokesperson, maintained that the operations being conducted by the police are within the bounds of the law and done to protect the State and the people from enemies.
“The PNP welcomes the denial by the Court of Appeals of the petition filed by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers seeking court action against the lawful performance of duty by the PNP to protect the state from its enemies,” Banac said in a statement late Thursday.
“We maintain that all our activities and operations are well within our lawful mandate and constantly under the presumption of regularity,” he added.
In its petition, ACT Philippines chairperson Joselyn Martinez said the profiling operations “are evidently illegal as they violate our constitutionally-guaranteed rights to free expression, association, and privacy as well as its pertinent laws.”
The petition stemmed from leaked photos of a supposed PNP memoranda issued by the Manila Police District Station 3 (Sta. Cruz) to make rounds in select schools to gather information about members of ACT.
The leaked photo of the order issued Dec. 26, 2018 showed it was signed by a certain Chief Insp. Rexson Layug, the chief of the intelligence branch of the MPD Station 3.
Aside from the MPD memo, reports of supposed profiling were allegedly received by the ACT in Tarlac, Bulacan, Cebu, Sorsogon, Camarines Sur, Zambales, Navotas City, Malabon City, and Agusan del Sur since the start of this year.
In denying the petition, the CA, in a four-page resolution dated Feb. 4, 2019, cited the failure of ACT to include in its petition the certified true copies of the PNP memoranda issued by the police intelligence units for the supposed profiling of the group’s member-teachers in private and public schools.
The CA also noted that the teacher’s group failed to state material dates in their petition, which specifically includes the date when the petitioners received the PNP memoranda.
Moreover, the court said the petition “does not indicate the current date of issuance of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Membership Number of the petitioners’ counsel” and the “current date of issuance of the Professional Tax Number of the petitioner’s counsel,” which violate Bar Matter No. 287 dated Sept. 26, 2000 and Bar Matter No. 1132 dated Nov. 12, 2002, respectively.
ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said the group will appeal the CA decision and asked the court to “put more weight on the merit of the case.”
“It is impossible for us to get the presented copies of PNP memo to be authenticated by them also as this will be used as evidence against them. We urge the court to hear the accounts of the witnesses,” Basilio said.
“We are alarmed the decision might send a wrong message that profiling an ordinary citizen is alright and that this might embolden the PNP to carry out illegal surveillance activities,” he added.
PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde denied issuing orders to his intelligence commanders to spy on ACT members. (Martin Sadongdong)