(Eagle News) — The Philippine National Police on Thursday, April 12, maintained its anti-drug operations were “constitutional, legal” and were “implemented in the interest of public safety.”
PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. John Bulalacao made the statement after the Supreme Court, in its denial of the state’s motion for reconsideration of a 2017 SC order directing the PNP to release drug war reports, said that the killings in the drug war could be state-sponsored.
The SC said this was because the Duterte administration’s 2017 Year-end Report listed the death toll among its accomplishments.
“Emphasis should not only be focused on the almost 4,000 deaths in police operations but also on the more than 1.3 M surrenderers, 120,000+ arrested persons and on the number of law enforcers who have died during these police operations. If the claims on (extrajudicial killings) are true, then these surrenderers and arrested suspects should not be alive as well,” Bulalacao said.
He added that while allegations were “part of the healthy democracy that the country has,” the “presumption of regularity remains with the law enforcers and unless proven otherwise in the court of law.”
The SC required government officials to submit the drug reports within a period of 15 days from notice, after denying Solicitor General Jose Calida’s motion for reconsideration.
These reports include a list of persons killed in legitimate police operations from July 1, 2016 to Nov. 30, 2017; a list of deaths under investigation from July 1, 2016 to Nov. 30, 2017; among others.
The PNP has said it would defer to the Office of the Solicitor General’s legal opinion.
