SC asked to hold OSG, PNP in contempt over ‘rubbish’ drug war docs

MANILA, Philippines — The Center for International Law (Centerlaw) has asked the Supreme Court to cite the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in contempt of court for submitting “rubbish” documents supposedly related to the government’s war on drugs.

In a motion filed Monday, the Centerlaw said the OSG and the PNP had defied the Supreme Court three times, specifically its April 2019 order to provide documents related to the over 20,000 drug-related deaths for the period covering July 1, 2016, to Nov. 27, 2017.

According to Centerlaw, the OSG and PNP gave the Supreme Court 289 compact discs (CDs/DVDs) that contained documents supposedly on 20,322 drug-related deaths.

Centerlaw told the court, however, that of 1, 792 death files examined only 801 cases were solved, and of those cases, 90.01 percent were not drug-related. Meanwhile, of the 991 unsolved cases, 55.80 percent were not drug-related.

“In other words, only 9.99 percent of the solved cases are ‘possibly drug-related’ and only 44.20 percent of the unsolved cases are ‘possibly drug-related’ deaths,” Centerlaw said.

The cases which are not drug-related according to Centerlaw involves incidents of stabbing, mauling, hacking, shooting involving private affairs of citizens.

Some of the cases cited include a crime of passion, a misunderstanding over a videoke song, a man who was killed because he disturbed the sleeping suspect.

“What the OSG and PNP virtually want is for the Supreme Court and the Petitioners to utterly waste valuable time and resources examining case files which are totally irrelevant and, in fact, absolutely rubbish insofar as the instant cases are concerned,” read their motion.

“The Supreme Court should not lose sight of the fact that the OSG and PNP trifled not only with the Petitioners. The OSG and PNP have run circles around the emphatic and repeated orders of the high court for them to submit documents on drug war related deaths,” read the motion.

In short, the PNP and OSG showed that they really had no intention to comply with the high court’s order, the motion said.

During the 2017 oral arguments, the court required the OSG and PNP to submit the drug-related documents and provide the petitioner, human rights advocates and law groups with a copy.

The OSG, through Solicitor General Jose Calida, however, filed a motion for reconsideration against the high court’s order.

After their motion was dismissed, the OSG complied but provided copies only to the Supreme Court, prompting petitioners to file a motion.

Last April, the high court ruled that the petitioners should also be given a copy of the documents.

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/atm