MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has dismissed criticisms against his order for the police to round up loiterers.
Ordering the Philippine National Police to catch tambays is well within his powers as chief executive, Duterte stressed.
In a speech Saturday night at the Malayan Colleges Mindanao in Davao City, he slammed those questioning his order, including Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo.
“Ito naman kasing mga human rights, pati iyong IBP na siraulo. Look, guys, if you are the president of IBP, there is no need for a law for me to order the clearing of the streets,” Duterte said.
“If I say, ‘Arrest and take into custody the young people,’ that is well within my parens patriae – the father of the nation – to protect them from crime,” he added.
Under the parens patriae doctrine, it is the duty of the State to act as the guardian of the Filipino people.
Duterte ordered the authorities to intensify their campaign against loiterers whom he viewed as “potential trouble for the public.”
Fajardo earlier said the Supreme Court had long before ruled against obligatory invitations by the police.
“Iyong verbal order po ay medyo duda po tayo sa legality ng isang arrest na hindi nakasaad talaga sa papel kung ano iyong elemento ng offense o krimen na naging basehan ng warrantless arrest,” he said.
“Matagal na pong hindi sinang-ayunan iyan ng Supreme Court natin. Iyong mga dampot-dampot at imbitasyon … Imbitasyon nga e. ’Pag imbitasyon, pwedeng tumanggi,” said Fajardo.
Duterte maintained there is nothing wrong in his order.
“You can bring me to the Supreme Court and we will see each other there. You not – do not deprive government to reduce us to inutility. Pareho tayo abogado. Kung sino lang ang marunong sa atin,” he said.
During a courtesy visit to Iloilo governor Arthur Defensor Sr. last week, Fajardo warned against baseless arrests of tambays.
Police should observe the rule of law in enforcing the order of the President – officers may arrest tambays only if they had committed a crime or violated an ordinance or a provision in the Revised Penal Code – said Fajardo.
Vagrancy, he pointed out, was no longer a criminal offense.
More than 7,000 supposed loiterers have already been arrested after Duterte made the verbal order on June 13.
One of them, Concepcion, Iloilo native Genesis “Tisoy” Argoncillo, died while in police custody. He was arrested supposedly for “alarm and scandal” in Novaliches, Quezon City. (With GMA News/PN)
