The Supreme Court (SC), sitting en banc, on Tuesday, April 3, gave the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) 15 days to submit to the high court records related to the 3,806 confirmed deaths from legitimate police operations and the government’s war on drugs, according to a press statement.
“The Court denied the Solicitor General’s Motion for Reconsideration of the Court’s Order dated 5 December 2017 and directed (the government) to comply with the said Order by submitting the required reports within a period of fifteen (15) days from notice,” read the statement.
Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio’s verbal order to require the government to submit all documents in connection to its operations from July 1, 2016 to Nov. 30, 2017 stemmed from a petition submitted by the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) which called the police’s circulars unconstitutional for using terms like “negating” in dealing with drug suspects.
Mr. Calida had shown willingness to comply during the oral arguments that took place all throughout the month of December, replying to Mr. Carpio’s order with “yes your honor, we will embody them in our memorandum.”
Names, addresses, ages, gender of the individuals killed were just some of the information the SC required the government to submit.
Despite his earlier statement, Mr. Calida refused to follow and, in his motion for reconsideration submitted Dec. 18, last year, cited the possible negative repercussions such an order will have to national security since the documents “contain sensitive information that have national security implications.” — Dane Angelo M. Enerio

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR