MANILA, Philippines — “What do they mean by ‘due diligence’? We’re merely recipients of information.”
Senate President Vicente Sotto III had this to say to Philippine National Police’s (PNP) recent statement about the release of the names of so-called “ninja cops” or those who engage in the re-selling of seized illegal drugs.
The PNP has asked the Senate to “exercise due diligence in protecting the rights” of the ninja cops “against undue persecution.”
READ: PNP to Senate: Protect rights of ‘ninja cops’ against ‘undue persecution’
Senators earlier agreed to authorize the Senate blue ribbon committee to disclose the contents of its executive session on policemen allegedly involved in the “agaw-bato” (re-selling of seized drugs) scheme.
READ: Senate OKs release of executive session contents on ‘ninja cops’
Sotto said he “takes exception” to PNP’s recent pronouncement, maintaining that the Senate only makes use of the information they obtained “in aid of legislation.”
“Ito ang ginagamit namin in aid of legislation na makakatulong sa amin na makagawa ng batas upang wag na mangyari kung may mga hindi magandang pangyayari at para hindi na mangyari uli ito and then incorporate it in the laws (We use the information to help us craft laws to prevent unlawful acts from happening again),” he told reporters during an interview.
“Ano’ng due process sa amin? (What due process you’re talking about?) We’re not the courts, we’re not trying anyone. We just received the information,” Sotto added.
He also explained that the authority given to the Senate blue ribbon is to allow them to divulge information to those who would ask for it, for example, the courts or even President Rodrigo Duterte.
Sotto admitted that part of the decision to give the Senate committee the authority is that President Rodrigo Duterte wanted to know the information revealed during the executive session. It was also to address speculations circulating around.
“Oo, gustong malaman ng Pangulo, isa ‘yun. Then the other is napakadaming speculation na lumalabas at kung sinu-sinong pangalan ang binabanggit so mabuti pa ilabas na lang (Yes, the President wanted to know, that’s one reason. The other is, many speculations have arisen and many names were being mentioned so it’s better to just reveal it),” the Senate president said./ac