High court to government: Release ‘drug war’ records
MANILA — The Supreme Court has directed the government to release documents on its investigations into deaths linked to the crackdown on illegal narcotics to petitioners questioning the legality of the “war on drugs.”
The SC en banc on its first summer session in Baguio City ordered the solicitor general to provide copies of ‘drug war’ records to the two sets of petitioners in the case.
“The Court ordered the solicitor general to submit to the Supreme Court the police reports, copy furnishing the petitioners,” SC Public Information Office chief Brian Keith Hosaska said.
In 2017, two groups of petitioners asked the SC to halt the implementation of Duterte’s war on drugs. Their pleas are centered on killings in the San Andres Bukid district of Manila and in Baguio.
During oral arguments, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio ordered Calida to submit all documents pertaining to investigations into police anti-drug operations from July 1, 2016 to Nov. 30, 2017.
Calida had initially agreed to Carpio’s order, but later asked the SC to reconsider its order. The court stood firm on its directive and junked Calida’s appeal.
SC hits SolGen for ‘continued refusal’ to submit docs In a strongly worded resolution issued Feb. 3, 2018, but made public on April 11, 2018, the SC said: “The OSG’s continued refusal to submit to this Court’s requirement will lead this Court to presume that these information and documents, because they are wilfully suppressed, will be adverse to the OSG’s case.”