Rody: Get due process from court, not me

MANILA, Philippines - It’s up to the courts, not the president, to accord due process to drug suspects.

This was President Duterte’s reaction to critics who scored him for naming the five police generals allegedly involved in illegal drug operations.

Duterte stressed it is his “sworn, sacred duty to tell the Filipino the state of things in this country.”

He said even before he won the elections, he had advised police officials involved in drug deals to get out of the police service or be shamed publicly.

“What due process? Due process, ulol (fool)! It is given once you are in the court. It is not given by the President. I am not the court. Why should I give you due process?” Duterte remarked before his fellow alumni of the San Beda College of Law late Thursday.

“I can give you a lawyer. I cannot handle a proceeding or proceedings against you,” he added.

Early this month, Duterte revealed the names of five retired and active police officials whom he accused of coddling drug lords.

He specifically mentioned former Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy director general Marcelo Garbo Jr., who he said was a “protector of drug syndicates.”

The other police generals Duterte named were Chief Supts. Bernardo Diaz, Edgardo Tinio; Director Joel Pagdilao and retired police general Vicente Loot.

Diaz was relieved last week from his post in Region 7.

Garbo and Loot have left the police service. Loot is the newly elected mayor of Daanbantayan town in Cebu while Tinio served as director of the Quezon City Police District Office.

Pagdilao, on the other hand, was director of the National Capital Region Police Office.

All have denied the accusations and said Duterte must have been fed wrong and “poisonous” information linking them to the drug trade.

Duterte, however, maintained the five deserve to be investigated and should be given the opportunity to defend themselves.

Duterte, who vowed to cleanse the country of drugs, also named three individuals who reportedly belong to the top tier of the narcotics trade in the country.

They were identified as Wu Tuan alias “Peter Co,” and Herbert Colangco alias “Ampang,” both detained at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP); and Peter Lim alias “Jaguar” who remains at large.

Last month, Duterte told lawmakers that at least 35 local executives are condoning or protecting drug lords.

The President said he would identify them once he gathers enough evidence linking them to drug rings.

Critics claimed Duterte’s shame campaign deprived those accused of due process.

‘Better to kill them’ 

Duterte said the drug menace in the country would end if all drug lords are killed within 24 hours.

“And we are the only country – I think in the world, except South America – where shabu is being cooked at the national penitentiary. That’s why I have them (drug lords) arrested. I let these bitches live so that woman won’t be able to say anything against me,” Duterte said, apparently referring to Sen. Leila de Lima.

De Lima has vowed to probe allegations that the intensified campaign against drugs has resulted in human rights violations.

“Give him a trial, a fair trial, judicial trial. Okay. After that what?” the tough-talking Duterte said.

“After they were brought here what did they do? They cooked shabu. It would have been better if I killed them,” he added.

Duterte said shabu destroys the human brain and could put the country in peril.

“Four or seven years, if nobody interdicts the drug business in the Philippines, we will be a narco-politic. So this should stop,” he said.

“I have placed the burden upon myself. I will end this even at the cost of my honor, my life and the presidency,” he added.

Duterte previously assured law enforcers that he is ready to defend them once they are charged for actions that are related to their duty. He also vowed to assume “full legal responsibility” for what he described as a “bloody fight” against drugs.

At one time during the campaign, Duterte

promised a crackdown on illegal drug operations in the NBP in Muntinlupa City, where he claimed thousands of drug suspects are detained for their illegal activities and still continue their illicit trade.

Duterte made a campaign promise to eradicate crime and illegal drugs in the first six months of his presidency.

Already, hundreds of suspected drug offenders have been killed in supposed shootouts with policemen and recently, scores of dead bodies were being found, indicating an increase in the summary execution of suspected criminals.

To sustain the crackdown in the NBP, a battalion of the PNP’s elite Special Action Force (SAF) would secure the prison facility.

PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said the SAF deployment was in response to the request made by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the police to help stamp out illegal drug transactions by high profile convicts inside the facility.

“Initially the PNP is sending 100 SAF elements out of the one battalion we are deploying at NBP,” Dela Rosa said.

He said the NBP-bound SAF troops would be working alongside their Marines counterpart in the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the operational control of newly designated Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Marine Maj. Gen. Alexander Balutan.

Balutan is expected to assume his post on Aug. 1.

The Marines and SAF troops will be guarding the prison facility on a monthly rotation basis, to avoid familiarization and contact with the convicts.

Dela Rosa said that for the longest time, convicted drug lords have been operating inside the confines of the NBP under the very noses of prison authorities.

“We need special units to address this pressing problem,” he said.

Dela Rosa added the SAF deployment at the NBP would not be permanent as they will be pulled out once the illegal drug trade inside the penal facility has been stamped out. 

Senate probe

On the other hand, De Lima wants a congressional probe into the rising incidents of summary executions of suspected criminals and has filed a resolution in the Senate calling for such an investigation.

De Lima yesterday met with Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who is emerging as the next Senate president, where they discussed her Senate Resolution 9.

De Lima told reporters that it was “most likely and natural” that a caucus will be called next week to set the direction of the Senate before the 17th Congress opens on July 25.

She said she sought the meeting with Pimentel who, she said, had no questions on her resolution.

De Lima, however, said she was told that there was no guarantee the Senate committee on justice – which she is expected to chair—will spearhead the inquiry even if she had specified it in her resolution.

Earlier, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who has been opposing the conduct of the investigation, said the caucus will decide what will happen to the resolution.

Lacson said the caucus could also determine which panel it will be referred to, and that it may be his committee on public order.

“If we can’t justify a good legislation that will come out of an investigation, our impression is that we just want to create a spectacle,” he said on Wednesday. –Jaime Laude, Paolo Romero