Judge: QC petitioners fail to justify request to halt cops’ house-to-house drug tests

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

A Quezon City court has denied the application for writ of preliminary injunction filed by a number of residents against the house-to-house drug testing and surveys done by the city police.

Judge Editha Mina-Aguba, of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 100, said the case did not meet the two requisites for preliminary injunctive relief, which are the existence of a right and its actual or threatened violation.

Citing the Rules of Court, the order said that for the writ to be granted, the right to be protected and the violation against that right must be shown.

Aguba said in her Oct. 10 order that the petitioners failed to present evidence that “they have a right to be protected” in the case, with only one petitioner, Jennifer Anne Mendoza, presented in court.

“Her testimony… did not tackle the issue at hand. What she was complaining was the alleged fear of her life… (which) are totally alien if not completely different to the instant application or even to the instant petition,” she said.

The court noted Mendoza’s statements that she was allegedly fearful for her possible arrest and of the government’s campaign against drug suspects.

“Hence, it is safe to conclude that she has not been affected adversely by the alleged complained acts of the respondents,” the order read.

Aguba also noted that the court did not issue a temporary restraining order (TRO), which the petitioners also applied for, after the manifestation of Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, director of the Quezon City Police District, that they have voluntarily discontinued the house-to-house visits.

“Petitioners still fail to rebut the conclusion reached by the Court… This Court has no option other than to believe respondents’ contention that they already ceased and desisted from doing the acts,” she said.

In August, over 30 residents from Barangays Payatas and South Triangle filed a petition for prohibition and preliminary injunction, with a prayer for TRO, against the drug tests and surveys. However, Payatas petitioners expressed their intent to withdraw from the case.

But their legal counsels from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers claimed they may have been pressured to back out from the case. /jpv

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