Widow of alleged ‘tokhang’ victim gets protection order from SC 

The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a temporary protection order in favor of the widow of an alleged victim of the now suspended police anti-drug operations in Antipolo City in July last year.

During Tuesday's en banc session, the SC prohibited the respondents and any of their agents from entering within a radius of one kilometer from the residences and work addresses of petitioner Christina Macandog Gonzales, wife of the late Joselito Gonzales. 

The high court also issued a writ of amparo and referred the case to the Court of Appeals (CA), which was tasked to decide if Gonzales would get a permanent protection order. 

The appellate court has 10 days from submitting the case for resolution to come out with its ruling. 

Named respondents to the petition were Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno, Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, Chief Supt. Valfrie Tabian, Senior Supt. Adriano Enong, Supt. Simnar Semacio Gran, Police Inspector Aristone Dogwe, Allen  Cadag, Mark Riel Canilon, and other members of the Antipolo City Police Station Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force and the Rizal Provincial Special Operating Unit Team. 

Case records show Joselito Gonzales died of multiple gunshot wounds on July 5, 2016 following an encounter with policemen. 

In her petition, Gonzales claimed that she and her husband were convinced by respondent police officers into drug dealing but that they decided, in mid-2016, to surrender and reform. 

Gonzales, however, said Cadag and Canilon threatened to kill them.

"This threat was later carried out. Petitioner (Gonzales) is in hiding, leaving behind her child for fear that she will be killed next," the SC Public Information Office said. 

This is the second time the SC issued a protection order in relation to the Oplan Tokhang, the police's knock-and plead-strategy of convincing drug suspects to stop using illegal drugs. 

On January 31, the SC directed the CA to conduct a hearing on the writ of amparo petition filed by the survivor and relatives of drug suspects killed in a police operation in a Quezon City village in August last year.

Weeks later, the CA Fourteenth Division has made the protection order permanent and ordered the reassignment of four policemen involved in the incident. 

The petitioners, led by Efren Morillo, the lone survivor in the police anti-drug operation, complained of continued harassment and intimidation from policemen involved even five months after the killings. 

Their petition was not opposed by the Office of Solicitor General at the CA hearing on February 11 as the government said it shared the petitioners' position that their right to life and liberty must be protected. — MDM, GMA News