Various business groups on Sunday lauded the recent decision of the Supreme Court admonishing law enforcers to respect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people in implementing the government all-out war against illegal drugs.
They also urged all sectors of the government and individuals to be vigilant and “to help ensure that constitutional rights are always protected.”
“We join the voices of several groups who commended the Supreme Court in a landmark decision upholding the primacy and inviolability of human rights as enshrined in the Constitution,” the business groups said in a statement.
“We thank the Court for delivering a message that no citizen should be deprived of his personal liberty based on unlawfully obtained evidence, such as in illegal search or a warrantless determination to uphold the rule of law over the rule of men,” they added.
The statement was issued by the Financial Executive Institute of the Philippines, Institute of Corporate Directors, Institute for Solidarity in Asia, Investment Houses Association of the Philippines, Judicial Reform Initiative, Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Shareholders Association of the Philippines, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines and the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.
In a decision released last week, the SC reversed and set aside the ruling of Court of Appeals which affirmed the regional trial court’s decision convicting a certain Jerry Sapla on charges of transportation of illegal drugs.
Sapla was caught by policemen in January 2014 with four bricks or almost 4, 000 grams of marijuana while on board a jeepney in Tabuk City, Kalinga province.
He was subsequently convicted by the Regional Trial Court of Tabuk City on January 9, 2017.
The CA affirmed Sapla’s conviction in a ruling issued on April 24, 2018.
However, the SC ruled that law enforcers cannot conduct an invasive and warrantless search of a vehicle based on unverified information or tip relayed by an anonymous informant.
It declared that unverified information from anonymous informant alone is not sufficient to constitute probable cause to justify the conduct of extensive and intrusive search by law enforcers inside a vehicle.
It added that the police must have personal knowledge leading to suspicion, and not rely on suspicion of another, adding that in prior cases where it validated warrantless searches and seizures on the basis of tipped information, the seizures and arrests were not merely and exclusively based on the initial tips but were also prompted by other attendant circumstances.
The high court ruled that the war against illegal drug become “self-destructive and self-defeating” when the Bill of Rights under the Constitution is violated.
