PNP must allow access to drug war police reports —NAPOLCOM

The Philippine National Police (PNP) must provide access to police reports and other documents related to the drug war killings during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, the National Police Commission (NAPOLCOM) said Wednesday.

Lawyer Rafael Vicente Calinisan, NAPOLCOM’s Vice Chairperson and Executive Officer, made the assertion in response to a query submitted by Akbayan party-list Representative Chel Diokno as to why the police keep on refusing to cooperate with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) probe on at least 4,000 drug war slays during police operations.

Diokno cited the account of CHR Chairperson Richard Palpa-Latoc, who said that the majority of police stations are not complying with CHR subpoenas on the police reports on drug war killings, citing Duterte's Executive Order No. 2 on the Freedom of Information, which supposedly includes the police investigations as confidential.

“From what I've gathered, Mr. Chair, we had a talk with the previous leadership of the PNP [under General Nicolas Torre III]. In fact, I was there alongside [ML party-list] Representative de Lima. And the direction right now is to actually provide access to investigative bodies because that should be the course of things,” Calinisan said during a Philippine National Police briefing before the House Public Order and Safety panel.

“So hopefully, with the new Chief PNP and of course with the National Police Commission who is currently investigating the extrajudicial killings cases [during the Duterte drug war], we will get somewhere,” Calinisan added, referring to new PNP Chief, Police Lieutenant General Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr.

NAPOLCOM is the agency mandated to administer and control the PNP.

Diokno then reminded NAPOLCOM and the PNP that the exception under Duterte’s EO on FOI should not be used to conceal police documents related to drug war killings committed by the police because the said EO does not provide for absolute exceptions.

“While it does provide that information concerning law enforcement are within the exceptions, meron pong kondisyon ‘yun that the government agency can only refuse to provide documents if it will interfere with enforcement proceedings, deprive a person of a right to fair trial, reveal a confidential source, or disclose unjustifiably investigative techniques,” Diokno, a human rights lawyer, said.

“Please inform the new chief of the PNP that we need assurances from the Philippine National Police that they will provide full cooperation with the CHR in its fulfillment of its mandate,” Diokno added.

In March, Duterte was arrested and brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands on the charge of crimes against humanity, in connection with his administration’s drug war killings. — BM, GMA Integrated News