DILG exec hits party-list group for ‘publicity stunt’

The Court of Appeals. (Photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Tuesday said the appeal filed by ACT party-list before the Court of Appeals to stop the police from profiling its members is a “publicity stunt.”

DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the party-list group only wants media mileage as election season comes near.

“The Motion for Reconsideration filed by the ACT Party-list group with the Court of Appeals is clearly a publicity stunt meant to draw attention to their group because of the election season,” Malaya said in a statement.

“The original petition was already dismissed and yet ACT wishes to beat a dead horse. We appeal to ACT to stop politicizing this issue just to earn votes from the public,” he added.

Malaya also noted that the procedural infirmities and errors in the ACT’s petition are “too basic and too fundamental to be ignored.’’

ACT party-list on Monday asked the Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision dismissing their case against the Philippine National Police (PNP).

READ: ACT prods CA anew to stop PNP from profiling its members

Malaya also said that there was a “great injustice for our law enforcement agencies to be stymied in the performance of their duties by the filing of frivolous and half-baked court petitions that clearly violate the Rules of Court’’.

With this, he said that he was confident that the Court of Appeals would affirm its dismissal of ACT’s petition.

“The Court’s decision proves that the alleged profiling or police crackdown of their group is a figment of their imagination designed to draw more media attention as the election nears. In other words, this was an exercise in politics in aid of reelection,” Malaya said.

“We encourage the leaders of ACT to instead clarify matters with Mr. Joma Sison who was the one who tagged them as a communist front in their armed conflict instead of seeking recourse from the very institutions they seek to overthrow,” he added./cbb