THE Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) welcomed the Court of Appeals' (CA) ruling that dismissed the petition filed by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) against the alleged conduct of surveillance and profiling on public and private school teachers.
“The PNP welcomes the denial by the Court of Appeals of the petition filed by the ACT seeking court action against the lawful performance of duty by the PNP to protect the state from its enemies,” PNP spokesperson Senior Superintendent Bernard Banac said on Friday, February 8.
“We maintain that all our activities and operations are well within our lawful mandate and constantly under the presumption of regularity,” he added.
DILG Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the ACT petition contained “malicious and groundless accusations” against the national police agency.
He said the DILG is dismayed that instead of entering into a dialogue and clarifying things with the PNP, the ACT chose to go to the courts.
The move, Malaya said, was meant to politicize the issue in order to increase name recall and media mileage as the midterm election nears.
“More than pointing out their petition's infirmities that clearly violated the Rules of Court, it becomes clear as day that the petition they submitted to the court is indeed nothing but propaganda to gain some publicity especially now that we are months away from the party-list elections,” said Malaya.
“It is clear from the court's decision that the petition was half-baked and contained elementary errors which a well-prepared lawyer would never commit. It baffles us why the ACT filed such a petition bereft of verifiable evidence or proof to support its baseless allegations of a police crackdown on its members,” he added.
On January 17, the ACT, represented by its National Chairperson Joselyn Martinez and its Secretary-General Raymond Basilio, together with ACT National Capital Region Union, Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA) and ACT Region III Union filed a petition for prohibition against a PNP memorandum that orders policemen to conduct profiling and intelligence gathering of ACT members.
It said the PNP’s order to its policemen has caused fear among their members.
In a resolution of the petition issued on February 4, CA Associate Justices Ricardo Rosario, Nina Antonio-Valenzuela and Perpetua Atal-Pano explained the petitioners failure to include one of the main requirement, which is the certified true copies of the PNP memoranda, which they alleged was issued by police intelligence units.
“The petition shall likewise be accompanied by a certified true copy of the judgment, order or resolution subject thereof, copies of all pleadings and documents relevant and pertinent thereto,” the petition reads.
The court also said the ACT failed to state material dates in their petition, specifically the dates when the petitioners received the various assailed PNP memoranda.
It said it also did not include the “current date of issuance of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Membership Number of the petitioners' counsel” and “the current date of issuance of the Professional Tax Number (“PTR”) of the petitioners' counsel” in violation to Bar Matter Number 287 dated September 26, 2000 and Bar Matter Number 1132 dated November 12, 2002, respectively.
Earlier, PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde said he did not issue such order but added such effort by the police to gather intelligence information against ACT members is part of the government’s effort to address the problem on internal security particularly on the communist rebels.
He said it was done after Communist Party of the Philippines chairman Joma Sison claimed that the ACT was among the legal fronts against the government. (SunStar Philippines)