INVESTIGATION against the police and the military on the government’s bloody drug war should be addressed first to President Rodrigo Duterte, Malacañang insisted Saturday even after Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales shot down calls to first seek presidential clearance before investigating his men.
While the Palace still respects the power of the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate police and military personnel, they maintained that Duterte still “assumes command responsibility for the actions of his men as Commander-in-Chief or Chief Executive.”
“The Executive recognizes the constitutional mandate of the Ombudsman to investigate public officials,” said Abella in a statement.
“[But] the President requests that investigations of members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines related to the performance of their duties in the government’s anti-drug campaign or while Mindanao is under martial law be addressed to him,” he added.
The Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the Ombudsman both gained the ire of Duterte for criticizing his brutal war in drugs and for “goading people to kill.”
Carpio-Morales, who chided Duterte’s call for police and military officials to seek his approval first before submitting themselves to any investigation, said there was no law which requires security officials to report first to their commander-in-chief about any investigation.
“Anong pakialam niya? [What’s his business?] Under the law we have subpoena powers. We have orders for particular officials, including police and soldiers, to show up or to file pleadings,” Morales said in an interview with reporters.
“There is no law that requires a soldier or a policeman or any respondent for that matter to seek clearance from anybody,” Morales said, adding it was up to the government law enforcers if they would follow Duterte or not.
She also vowed to continue the prosecution of cases involving police and military personnel if they found probable cause against them.
The Ombudsman has been handling several cases involving law enforcers, including the criminal charges filed by the families of alleged drug suspects killed in the PNP’s campaign against illegal drugs dubbed as Oplan Tokhang.