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Government asks SC for more time to submit drug war documents

May 16, 2018 | 3:15pm

Government asks SC for more time to submit drug war documents

In this Dec. 8, 2016 photo, people and a policeman looking at the body of a woman, later identified by her husband as that of Nora Acielo, still clutching the school bag of her child, are reflected in a pool of water after she was shot by still unidentified men while walking with her two children to school at a poor neighborhood in Manila, Philippines.

AP / Bullit Marquez

MANILA, Philippines — The government, through the Office of the Solicitor General, has asked the Supreme Court for additional time to comply with its order to submit the voluminous records on drug war deaths.

The OSG asked the tribunal to move the deadline for the submission of drug war documents to June 25, 2018. This is in connection with the consolidated petitions assailing the constitutionality of the police’s "Oplan Double Barrel" and the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s "Masa Masid" programs.

READ: Data on drug war deaths being wilfully suppressed? The SC thinks so

In compliance with the order, the OSG submitted, along with the motion for extension, investigation case folders for Ryan Dave Tuazon Almora, Rex Appari, Jefferson Soriano, Conrado Beroña III, Jomar Manaois, Ryan Eder, Willie Ternora and several other alleged victims of the government's campaign against drugs.

But the OSG requested a two-month extension for the other documents it failed to submit to the tribunal.

“The respondents respectfully request an extension of sixty days from April 26, 2018 or until June 25, 2018, to submit the other documents required by this Honorable Court,” read the motion that was made public only on May 16.

OSG's 'continued refusal' to submit documents

The high court earlier denied the OSG’s motion for reconsideration for lack of legal basis.

In a strongly worded resolution dated April 3, the SC en banc stressed that when it ordered the solicitor general to yield documents on thousands of drug-related deaths, it asked the government to “establish its claim of the legitimacy of police operations.”

“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,” the resolution further reads.

The OSG, last April, also submitted the following documents:

Statistics on PNP Internal Cleansing and Process Flow on Handling Complaints
List of Arrested Chinese and Filipino-Chinese covering the period of 2003-2017
Buy-Bust incidents in San Andres Bukid, July 1, 2016 to Nov. 30, 2017
Drug watch lists in Sta. Ana, Manila
Summary of Administrative Cases of National Internal Affairs Services on Anti-Illegal Drugs Operations
Summary of Administrative Cases of all Regional Internal Affairs Services on Anti-Illegal Drugs Operations
Copies of related memorandums on drug war

The tribunal ordered the executive department to yield the said documents as it resolves the consolidated petitions that challenged the constitutionality of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

The International Criminal Court is currently conducting a preliminary examination into the Duterte administration over the thousands of deaths under its crackdown on drugs.

READ: SC orders government to submit records on drug war deaths