MALACAÑANG ON Thursday, Dec. 21, said the government has already taken action regarding the so-called Davao Boys of police officers in Quezon City who were the subject of a special report by Reuters on the Duterte administration’s drug war.

“There is a writ of amparo issued by the Supreme Court against the police station (No. 6 of the Quezon City Police District), so the response is we’re not taking it sitting down,” Presidential Spokesperson Herminio Harry L. Roque, Jr., said at a press briefing on Thursday.

He added: “The government, when that petition for Amparo was filed in the Supreme Court, did not oppose the petition and that’s why the Supreme Court issued the Writ of Amparo.”

On the other hand, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director-General Ronald M. dela Rosa said in an interview with reporters that squad commander Lito Patay has been reassigned to another province to make him eligible for promotion. The Reuters story identified Mr. Patay as the leader of the Davao Boys who presided over the fierce anti-drug campaign in parts of Quezon City on the watch of Station No. 6.

A writ of amparo, as defined by Section 1 of the Rule on the Writ of Amparo, “is a remedy available to any 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.”

“A writ of amparo will not provide for criminal sanctions against the respondents. What it will do is it will prompt the respondents to investigate, and the PNP right now is under obligation to investigate and confirm the reports of the petitioners in that writ of amparo,” Mr. Roque explained.

He added that, “if the investigation concludes that the police operation complained about was pursuant to the law, then the President will stand by the policemen.”

“But as in the case of Kian (delos Santos’s killing on Aug. 16), if it is proven that there was excessive use of force and that the use of force is tantamount to murder, then the President will order their prosecution.”

“Now, the nature also of the writ of amparo is that the court itself will inquire from the PNP regularly what is the status of the investigation, what can you tell us about the truth or falsity of the claims made by the petitioners,” Mr. Roque also said.

“I stress, this writ of amparo was precisely against the same police station mentioned by this reporter,” He said, too, regarding the Reuters story written by Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall.

For his part, Mr. Dela Rosa stood by Mr. Patay, saying that Station No. 6 in Quezon City had Metro Manila’s most serious drug problem and he personally sent Mr. Patay there because he was a “very professional” and “very dedicated” officer capable of dealing with it.

Mr. Patay handpicked and headed a unit of 10 men who called themselves the Davao Boys, which racked up the highest number of kills in Quezon City, a violent front line in Mr. Duterte’s ferocious anti-narcotics campaign.

“He (Mr. Patay) was chosen because I have big trust in him, he has the balls to face the problems. He will fight,” Mr. Dela Rosa told reporters.

“He is not an officer who is after money, who will be assigned in an area only to collect money, he is not that kind of officer. He has focus. I assigned him there because I know he can deliver.”

Asked about the high rate of killings in areas under Mr. Patay, he said deaths were inevitable where the drugs trade was rampant.

“So what’s the problem? The worst drug problem is there in station 6, so if you hit the problem head on, you face the problem head on then, there would always result in casualties,” Mr. Dela Rosa said.

He said Mr. Patay had been “given a free hand” at Station 6 and had command responsibility over his operations.

“It is his own call whatever he does there, he has to solve the drug problem,” Mr. Dela Rosa said. — reports by Arjay L. Balinbin and Reuters

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