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Duterte signs law giving subpoena powers to PNP chief, CIDG
President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law the measure that restored the power of select officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to issue subpoenas on cases under investigation.
Signed on March 1, Republic Act 10973 authorizes the PNP chief, the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director, and the CIDG deputy director for administration to summon individuals and documents to aid the PNP’s investigative work.
Failure to comply with the subpoena would entail the filing by the PNP-CIDG of a case for indirect contempt before the Regional Trial Court.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who pushed for the bill's passage in the Senate last year, had said that when the Philippine Constabulary and the Integrated National Police were merged to establish the current PNP under Republic Act 6975, most of the powers due the agency were carried over except for the subpoena powers.
“It seems absurd that the Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU), now known as the CIDG, with a mandate to undertake monitoring, investigation and prosecution of all crimes of such magnitude and extent as to indicate their commission by highly-placed or professional syndicates and organization, has lost its subpoena powers,” said Lacson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs and a former PNP chief.
Without the subpoena powers, Lacson said investigations would be incomplete and government resources would be wasted.
Prior to its enactment, only the courts, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Department of Justice, the National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency are authorized to issue subpoenas.
Lawmakers belonging to the Makabayan bloc had opposed the bill's passage, saying its enactment will only grant additional powers to the PNP-CIDG which may be abused in light of the supposed human rights situation in the country.
