Senate, House ‘tambay’ probe pushed

Resolutions pushing for an investigation of the government’s anti-“tambay” crackdown have been filed in the Senate and House of Representatives, a move welcomed by Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde.

“We are open to [an] investigation. We see no problem with that. We will be ready. We have statistics and records. We will show everything to them,” he told reporters at Camp Crame.

In a resolution filed on Monday, Sen. Bam Aquino said the death of 25-year-old Genesis Argoncillo and reports of arbitrary arrests underscored the urgency of investigating the crackdown.

Need for assessment

“There is a need to assess whether the [PNP’s] anti-“tambay” campaign, as well as the local ordinances on which it is based, is consistent with national laws and the Constitution,” he said.

At the House of Representatives, the Makabayan party-list bloc asked the human rights committee to look into the crackdown which had so far resulted in the rounding up of over 7,000 persons since June 13.

House Resolution 1969 filed on Monday said that Mr. Duterte’s order against loiterers “opens a floodgate of abuses especially in the midst of unresolved cases of police brutality and extrajudicial killings in poor communities.”

“It provides the PNP a wide latitude in carrying out illegal arrests, illegal search and seizures and in violating people’s right to mobility,” it said.

The Makabayan bloc pointed out that Republic Act 10158 already decriminalized acts of “vagrancy” in 2012.

It cited the June 17 account of Matt Dimaranan, who posted on Facebook that Makati City policemen jailed him and his companions just for waiting for a friend outside his house.

Dimaranan said that when they asked why they were detained, the police supposedly told them: “Whatever the President says is the law.”

“Potential trouble”

The police campaign followed Mr. Duterte’s pronouncement that people standing idly in the streets must be told to go home, and if they refuse, they would be brought to his office. They pose “potential trouble for the public,” he added.

Mr. Duterte has since denied ordering the arrest of loiterers while Malacañang said the directive was meant to enforce local ordinances such as a ban on drinking and gambling in the streets and walking around half-naked.

But Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the President’s denial was clearly “doublespeak.”

“The President engages in doublespeak, but he also has very clear pronouncements which unfortunately translate [into action] because he is the highest elected public official,” Hontiveros said over ANC.

Every word that comes out of his mouth has the effect of policy, which sets off actions like the campaign against loiterers, she said.

Aquino, in his resolution, said there was a pressing need to assess how the crackdown was being implemented especially after the death of Argoncillo, who was arrested for going to a store without a shirt.

Flip-flopping statement

When he died while in detention, the police initially claimed Argoncillo suffocated in the crowded cell. They later said he was mauled by other inmates after the autopsy report showed he succumbed due to multiple blunt force trauma.

“The reports of mistaken and seeming arbitrary arrests, and of abuse and neglect while in custody make urgent the need to assess how the said campaign is being operationalized…,” Aquino said. —WITH REPORTS FROM VINCE F. NONATO AND JAYMEE T. GAMIL