THE Philippine National Police is back in the bloody crackdown against illegal drugs, Malacañang announced on Tuesday.
In a still unnumbered memorandum circular, President Rodrigo Duterte said he had directed the PNP “to resume providing active support” to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which still remains as the overall lead agency in the campaign against illegal drugs, citing “public clamor.”
Aside from the PNP, other law enforcement agencies, including the National Bureau of Investigation, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Bureau of Customs, Philippine Postal Corp., will resume providing active support to the PDEA, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.
“Take note though that the language of the memorandum is that they will resume, I quote, ‘They will resume, providing active support in the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, in the conduct of anti-illegal drug operations.’ Meaning, PDEA remains the lead but the PNP will again participate in the anti-illegal drug operation,” Roque said.
In a related development:
• Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Tuesday asked government lawyers why the Duterte administration’s war on drugs was targeting small-time drug suspects and not the “big fishes” like the Filipino-Chinese or Chinese importers.
Carpio made the observation during the continuation of the oral arguments on the petitions against the PNP Command Memorandum Circular No. 16-2016 or “Oplan Double Barrel” and Department of Interior and Local Government’s Memorandum Circular 2017-112 or the “Masa Masid.”
In grilling Solicitor General Jose Calida, counsel for the government, Carpio noted that the thrust of the drug war apparently focuses on street level pushers and users when the drug trade was dominated by Chinese and Filipino-Chinese drug lords behind the bulk smuggling in dangerous drugs in the country.
“I’ve been in this Court for almost 17 years. We affirm the conviction in a drug case and almost always we convict mostly pushers. I can remember only one drug lord convicted and he’s not even a big-time drug lord,” Carpio lamented.
While the PDEA has made significant strides in the government’s anti-illegal drug campaign, it has been “seriously hampered” in performing its huge mandate with “the lack of resources, specifically agents and operatives who can penetrate drug infected areas down to the municipal and barangay levels,” Duterte stressed.
He added there had been “a notable resurgence in illegal drugs in the Philippines and crimes” since the PNP and the other law enforcement agencies yielded in the anti-illegal drug operations.
The new order supersedes the Oct. 10 memorandum circular Duterte issued, ordering all concerned agencies to yield to the PDEA as the “sole agency” in the conduct of anti-illegal drugs operations.
In the new memorandum, PDEA shall continue to be the overall lead agency pursuant to Republic Act No. 9165.
PDEA, as chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs, while the Dangerous Drugs Board shall remain as the policymaking and strategy formulating body in the planning and formulation of policies and programs on drug prevention and control.
The Palace had earlier said the drug problem might worsen if the conduct of the bloody anti-drug operations would not be returned to to the PNP , whom Duterte once tagged as “corrupt to the core.”
Duterte had earlier pulled out the PNP and assigned the PDEA instead to take over the campaign due to mounting public criticism over the thousands killed associated in his bloody drug war, particularly in several cases involving teenagers allegedly at the hands of the Caloocan City police.
Minors Kian Lloyd delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz were both gunned down by police officers during separate operations in Caloocan City in August, sparking protests nationwide.
Duterte in January made a similar move, apparently sidelining the PNP following the death of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo, and described the police force as “corrupt to the core.”
Carpio also questioned why port authorities could stop the entry of the illegal drugs in the country, citing the P6.4-billion shabu shipment seized by the Bureau of Customs last May.
In response, Calida raised the challenge of guarding an archipelagic state like the Philippines.
“Unfortunately, our country is an archipelago. This shabu or metamphetamine hydrochloride are dumped into the sea, your Honor, and somebody will get it from the high seas. So we cannot police an archipelago. There are so many places where it can be transported to. It need not pass through the Bureau of Customs,” the chief state lawyer stressed.
Calida claimed that the government had been running after all drug players.
“Actually, your honor, the instruction of the President is to go after all of them. However, the big-time Chinese drug lords are outside our jurisdiction. They are in China,” he said.
However, Calida refused to discuss the case on the P6.4-billion drug shipment, saying the case was still under investigation.
Carpio also required Calida to submit to the SC a detailed report on the 3,806 deaths attributed to anti-drug operations carried out by the police.
PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa and PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino, who had been asked to appear at the hearing, were not present during the hearing because they were in New York for an anti-terrorism conference.
The PNP was instead represented by Police Director Augusto Marquez Jr., chief of the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management during the hearing.
The SC oral arguments on the petitions of human rights groups Free Legal Assistance Group and Center for International Law concluded after three sessions.
The Court ordered the parties to submit their memorandum in 60 days before it resolved the case.
Earlier, Calida told the high court that the petitions filed last October were “disingenuous moves to destabilize the Duterte administration and sow anarchy.”
FLAG filed the petition for two victims of extrajudicial killings identified as Ryan Dave Almora and Rex Appari and a survivor identified as Jefferson Soriano in police anti-narcotics operations.
In the same petition, FLAG sought issuance of writ of Amparo and temporary protection order prohibiting police authorities from getting near the residents or work places of the families of petitioners.
Almora and Aparri were shot dead during a home invasion in relation to the campaign against drugs, while Soriano survived an alleged summary execution attempt.
CenterLaw, on the other hand, filed its writ of Amparo petition for families of 35 alleged drug suspects killed in anti-narcotics operations of police over the past year and other residents of San Andres Bukid district in Manila.
