A PETITION was filed on Wednesday before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking the issuance of a writ of amparo to protect certain individuals, as well as residents of 26 barangays in San Andres Bukid, Manila City, against the government’s war against illegal drugs dubbed as Oplan Tokhang.
In a 57-page petition, lawyers belonging to the Center for International Law (Centerlaw)-Philippines sought the issuance of a temporary protection order prohibiting police authorities from getting near the residences and workplaces of the families of the 35 residents of San Andres Bukid who have been killed during the anti-illegal drug operations in the area for the past 13 months.
Specifically, the petition sought to enjoin the respondent from entering within a radius of 1 kilometer from the residence, work addresses of the families of the victims of Oplan Tokhang.
It also sought to prohibit the respondents from harassing, contacting or communicating with the affected parties, directly or indirectly. The Centerlaw is representing the petitioners, led by Sis. Ma. Juanita Daño, a nun of the Religious of the Good Shepherd, and 47 others who are suing and who individually and collectively filed the petition as a class suit on behalf of all the residents of 26 barangays in San Andres.
Named respondents in the petitioner were the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Philippine National Police Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa, Manila Police District (MPD) Director Senior Supt. Joel Napoleon M. Coronel, Manila Police Station 6 Commander Police Supt. Olivia Ancheta Sagaysay, Police Supt. Jerry Corpuz and Police Supt. Robert Domingo.
Also named as respondents were police officers assigned to MPD Station 6 identified as Police Officer (PO) 2 Rhafael Rodriguez, PO2 Princeton Felia, PO1 Harry Allan Cruz, PO1 Kennith Gaa, PO1 Efren Guitering, PO2 Jocelyn Samson, PO3 Allan Escramosa, PO2 Francisco Mendoza, PO2 Roestrell Ocampo, PO3 Rodolfo Ocampo Jr. Police Sr. Insp. Concorcio Pangilinan and three others identified only through their aliases, such as alias “Harry,” alias “Jr.” and “Ivan.”
The petition for a writ of amparo is a remedy available to any person whose right to life, liberty and security is violated or threatened by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity.
The writ covers extralegal killings and enforced disappearances.
The petition recounts the systematic violence allegedly perpetrated by members of the MPD Station 6 over the urban-poor community of San Andres Bukid and its adjacent areas.
“Specifically, it tells of the police cordoning off the perimeters of slum communities and disabling closed-circuit cameras; of armed men entering these areas in the dead of night, barging into houses no better than oversized boxes, shooting their victims and leaving; of [the] police standing guard, training their flashlights on houses and windows and shouting harsh warnings at the neighbors not to look while armed men break down doors and gun down the victims inside their own homes; of [the] police appearing in the scene shortly after, carting off the bodies of the victims and directing that the bodies be brought to the police’s authorized funeral parlors,” the petition read.
The Centerlaw is also asking the Court to prohibit the police authorities from coercing barangay officials from coming up with or submitting a list of any alleged drug users, pushers or troublemakers within the community until respondents have shown full compliance with the constitutional requirements of due process, the requirements of the Data Privacy Act, and regulatory assurance against arbitrariness and criminal machination.
The petition noted that many of the victims have previously surrendered to the barangay under Oplan Tokhang.
The victims were made to submit their names and other personal circumstances, their pictures taken and then submitted to the police.
“Sometime, thereafter, violence were visited upon them and their families, resulting in their death or those of their relatives and even those who were merely at the wrong place at the wrong time,” it said.
“It appears that the respondents have generated a list that they have apparently pressured barangay officials to make and to submit to them. Such list has become what has been referred to as the kill list,” the petition added.
Likewise, the petitioners asked the Court to enjoin the respondents from conducting any anti-illegal drugs operations in San Andres Bukid without the required coordination and presence of representatives from the barangay, the PDEA and the media.
This is the second petition for the issuance of the writ of amparo to be filed by Centerlaw in connection with the government’s drug campaign.
The first was filed on January 26 in behalf of the families of the tokhang victims who worked as garbage collectors and scavengers (Marcelo Daa Jr., Raffy Gabo, Anthony Comendo and Jessie Cule) and fruit/vegetable vendor (the lone survivor, Efren Morillo) in Payatas, Quezon City.
The SC granted the issuance of temporary protection five days after the case was filed and the Court of Appeals issued a decision giving permanent protection to the complainants on February 10.