MANILA, Philippines—Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde on Thursday welcomed the petition filed by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers’ (ACT) before the Court of Appeals to stop and declare as “unconstitutional” the alleged profiling of its members by the PNP.
“That’s good so that we can answer it sa proper forum hindi ‘yung sa media, sabi nila, sabi namin. I think it is a way para malaman talaga kung ano ang katotohanan at kung ano talaga ang ginagawa ng ating kapulisan,” Albayalde told reporters in the sidelines of a forum in Makati City.
In its petition, ACT, through the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) urged the appellate court to issue a restraining order against the PNP from profiling and obtaining lists of its members.
READ: Teacher’s group asks court to stop PNP profiling
ACT, a militant teachers’ group also called on the Court of Appeals to declare as unconstitutional the memoranda issued by the PNP that direct police officers to gather data about its members.
Albayalde already said that identifying members of the teachers’ group was part of the campaign to end the communist insurgency.
He also denied the allegation that profiling is part of the PNP’s red-tagging scheme against students and teachers. /muf
READ: Albayalde: ‘Red-tagging’ not a PNP policy