Palace says Davao Boys’ police station the subject of SC writ of amparo

Malacañang on Thursday accused news agency Reuters of committing bad journalism when it published a special report on the so-called Davao Boys at the Quezon City Police District Station Six without the administration's side.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that if only Reuters checked or waited for his reply, it would have learned that the Supreme Court has issued a Writ of Amparo against the police station, which the report said had the most drug-related killings in the city.

Roque said the government did not oppose the petition for the writ.

“What I do know is there is a writ of amparo issued by the Supreme Court against the police station. So the response is we’re not taking it sitting down,” Roque said.

“Government, when that petition for amparo was filed in the Supreme Court, did not oppose the petition and that’s why the Supreme Court issued the writ of amparo,” he added.

The SC in January issued a writ of amparo as well as a temporary protection order prohibiting the respondent police officers and their agents from entering within a radius of one kilometer from the residence and work addresses of the petitioners, who were relatives of drug suspects killed in a police operation in Group 9, Area B, Payatas, Quezon City in August 2016.

The Court of Appeals in February made the protection order permanent in favor of the survivor, Efren Morillo, and relatives of drug suspects killed.

Roque said that the government’s non-opposition to the petition showed that it was not behind the killings.

“So question: Is the government sanctioning the alleged operations of this Davao group? Clearly not because in that petition, government did not oppose it. In effect, government agreed with the allegations of the petition and that’s why there was a writ of protection issued,” Roque said.

“The writ of amparo was directed against the same police station that she wrote about… Had she only checked her facts, she should have known about the writ of amparo. It shows you the quality ‘no,” he added.

GMA News Online has reached out to Baldwin for comment.

Roque called out Reuters for giving him a deadline on giving his reply.

“She did not give us the opportunity to speak and it was really rather arrogant. ‘You give me your… you respond within the hour,’ despite the fact that we explained that we’re about to have our regular press briefing,” Roque said at a briefing in Malacañang.

Roque was referring to Reuters special correspondent Clare Baldwin, who co-wrote a special report on the "Davao boys" at the Quezon City Police District.

“So as far as I’m concerned, that’s very bad journalism. I will formally write to Reuters. As an advocate of press freedom, I thought that was really foul,” he added.  —NB, GMA News