POLICE Chief Ronald dela Rosa on Monday vowed not to use the subpoena powers returned to him against the political detractors of the Duterte administration or as an instrument for abusing the law.
He said he had no intention to abuse the subpoena powers, and that those would only be applied during extreme circumstances.
“Rest assured that I will never use it to abuse [people],” Dela Rosa said.
“I have no intention to use it against the political enemies of the administration.”
Meanwhile, Roel Obusan, the head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the subpoena powers granted to select officials of the Philippine National Police would be used against the “wealthy” and “well-learned” suspects involved in high-profile cases.
He said such powers would not be used against the poor.
“There are more high-profile cases committed by wealthy or well-learned individuals, so this is projected more on the well-learned and wealthy people and never against the anti-poor,” Obusan told reporters.
Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act 10973 to give the PNP chief and the head of the CIDG subpoena powers to speed up criminal investigations.
The new law empowered the PNP to require a person to appear before it and to produce certain documents that may be vital to a case or to an ongoing investigation.
But Dela Rosa said the subpoena powers would only be used in extreme cases.
“I don’t want to use it but there are extreme cases, situations wherein there’s a need for me to issue,” Dela Rosa said.
