“WILL THE honorable court allow the government’s war on drugs to supplant justice from the courts with justice from the barrels of guns?”

This was the “ultimate question” that Jose Manuel I. Diokno put forward as the Supreme Court (SC) heard the oral arguments yesterday, Nov. 21, on the consolidated petitions against the government’s war on drugs and the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) related “tokhang” and project double-barrel operations.

Mr. Diokno — national chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) and representing petitioners Aileen T. Almora, Rowena Aparri, and Jefferson Soriano — pointed out that tokhang has allowed cops to carry out illegal searches and opened the window for the shooting of suspects by policemen as well as alleged vigilantes.

“Instead of directing the police to obtain search warrants from the courts in order to raid the houses of these illegal drug personalities, it requires them to conduct warrantless house-to-house visitations and to negate those who deny or refuse to be visited,” he said.

“Instead of directing the police to redouble their efforts, gather evidence to convict drug users and pushers, it orders the police to compile names of suspected illegal drug personalities for the purpose of neutralizing and negating them,” he continued.

The brother of petitioner Almora, Ryan Dave, was killed in an alleged buy-bust operation after he was listed as no. 3 on the watch list level 1 of the “illegal drug personalities of the Baguio City Police Office. The son of Ms. Aparri, Rex, was killed in a tokhang operation in Tondo, Manila, wherein armed men invaded his home without warrant.

Mr. Soriano, on the other hand, was shot and left for dead after he was picked up by the police and allegedly tortured to reveal the whereabouts of someone who was wanted by the PNP.

“Ryan Dave Almora, Rex Aparri and Jefferson Soriano are just three of thousands of Filipinos whose blood has been spilled on our streets because of the war on drugs,” Mr. Diokno said during the oral arguments, “Most of them in areas mired in poverty.”

Citing data on the first-year report of PNP Director-General Ronald M. dela Rosa, the petitioners’ lawyer said: “The government’s war on drugs as operationalized by CMC 16 (Command Memorandum Circular 16-2016) has resulted in the deaths of 3,264 so-called drug personalities and 141 so-called high value targets not to mention the thousands of others killed by death squads who roam our streets with impunity.”

“But the war on drugs, your honor, is not just killing the poor, it is killing our legal system by replacing justice from our courts with justice from the barrels of guns,” he added.

The petitioners argued in their cases filed that CMC 16 and another memorandum related to the anti-narcotics campaign issued by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) are against the Constitution.

On the other hand, Solicitor-General Jose C. Calida, representing the PNP, said, “Well that is their version. Our version is all the memorandum circulars emanated from the PNP and DILG are constitutional and they have factual basis to say otherwise.”

In an interview prior to the oral arguments before the SC en banc, Mr. Calida said: “Well there are many issues here according to the advisory of the Supreme Court, but basically our strategy here is to ask for the dismissal of the petitions for procedural infirmities and of course there will be substantive issues.” — Andrea Louise E. San Juan

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR