SC affirms protection order for wife of drug war victim

The Supreme Court building is viewed from its closed gateway. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the Court of Appeals’ decision granting a protection order in favor of a widow whose husband died under the previous administration’s war on drugs and that the police officers involved be criminally and administratively held liable.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Y. Lopez, the high court’s 2nd division affirmed its ruling issuing a writ of amparo in favor of Christina Gonzales, whose husband, Joselito, suffered an extralegal killing committed by officers in Antipolo.

A writ of amparo is available to anyone whose rights to life, liberty, and security have been violated. The writ of habeas data serves a preventive and curative role to curb extrajudicial killings.

The police arrested Christina and her husband Joselito for using and selling illegal drugs. They were eventually released after paying the police P50,000.

However, the police allegedly have been continuously asking the couple to sell drugs and were threatened that they would be entrapped or killed.

On July 5, 2016, Joselito was killed in a buy-bust operation.

Christina was then prompted to seek protection via a writ of Amparo due to threats to her life.

The Supreme Court granted the writ of amparo and ordered the Court of Appeals to conduct a hearing.

During the hearing, the police said that Joselito drew his gun after he learned that the buyers were in fact, police officers. However, his body was discovered 43.2 feet from three cartridge cases that “presumably came from the firearms of the police operatives.”

Joselito purportedly had a revolver but the court noted that its cartridge cases remained inside its cylinder.

The Court of Appeals issued a protection order in favor of Christina and recommended that criminal and administrative charges be filed against the police officers involved.

The police then elevated the case to the Supreme Court, but the high court denied their petition in its recent ruling.

The SC noted lapses in the conduct of the police operation that led to the death of Joselito, such as missing documentation in compliance with the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, raising doubts as to whether a legitimate buy-bust operation took place.

The SC added that the police failed to act on several orders to reopen the investigation of Joselito’s death.

“The fact that respondent (Christina) and Joselito were previously arrested for selling illegal drugs is beside the point. As stated earlier, even if the respondent committed a crime, the petitioners, as law enforcement agents, are not at liberty to disregard the respondent’s constitutionality guaranteed rights to life, liberty, and security,” the SC said.

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