Lawyers say SolGen, PNP submitted ‘rubbish’ reports on drug war, slays

Lawyers for the government and the Philippine National Police submitted reports on killings that were not connected to President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, lawyers for petitioners against the campaign told the Supreme Court.

In a new manifestation and motion, the Center for International Law (Centerlaw) asked the High Tribunal to order the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the PNP to explain why they should not be declared in direct contempt of court for turning in case records that were mostly unrelated to drugs.

Forty-seven petitioners, led by Sister Ma. Juanita Daño of the Religious of the Good Shepherd and relatives of alleged victims of the drug war in October 2017 asked the SC to issue a writ of amparo and temporary protection order in their favor.

A writ of amparo is a remedy available to a person whose right to life, liberty, and security is violated or threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity.

The SC in April ordered the OSG to furnish copies of the drug war's police reports to the two groups that filed the now-consolidated cases against the bloody campaign.

Centerlaw, which represented Daño's group, said an examination of 107 of 289 submitted CDs and DVDs showed that "an overwhelming number of the death incidents submitted by the OSG and PNP are non-drug related cases."

Around 90 percent of the 801 "solved" cases are not drug-related, while 55.80 percent of the 991 "unsolved" cases that the Centerlaw has inspected so far are not drug-related, their motion stated. These cases include incidents of stabbing, mauling, shooting, among others, it said.

"What the OSG and PNP virtually want is for the Supreme Court and the petitioners to utterly waste valuable time and resources examining case files which are totally irrelevant and, in fact, absolutely rubbish insofar as the instant cases are concerned," Centerlaw said.

The group said most of the government's submitted documents were "rubbish"

The lawyers' group asked the SC to order the OSG and the PNP to submit the "correct and complete" documents on the 3,967 persons who died in police anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016 to November 27, 2017, and of the 16,355 homicide cases under investigation from July 1, 2016 to September 27, 2017. 

It also asked that the names of the victims listed and the cases be classified according to region and province and according to either police anti-drug operations or vigilante homicide cases under probe.

If the government would still fail or refuse to comply, Centerlaw asked the Court to consider it admitted by the government that the thousands of the said cases did not comply with requirements or did not undergo police investigation and documentation as required by laws and regulations.

The lawyers' group said the "recalcitrance" of the OSG and the PNP exposed "the government to charges in the international arena that it is unwilling to allow an independent investigation on the fatalities in the drug war."

The International Criminal Court is examining allegations against President Rodrigo Duterte and his senior officials for crimes against humanity in connection with the drug war.

But the Hague-based tribunal can only proceed with an investigation if the Philippines would be found to be "unwilling or unable" to carry out a "genuine" one of its own.

The Philippines left the ICC last March but the exit did not stop the court's Office of the Prosecutor from assessing if it has "reasonable basis" to investigate the charges against the president. —NB, GMA News