Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Friday urged the Senate to investigate the measures being taken by policemen as she cited reports alleging that some unscrupulous cops are planting evidence during drug buy-bust operations.
De Lima, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration and currently detained in Camp Crame on drug charges, said it is imperative that the Senate looks into several reports that some members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been staging crime scenes to easily prosecute suspected drug offenders.
Senator Leila de Lima (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco / MANILA BULLETIN)
“It is incumbent upon the PNP to make sure procedures in collection and preservation of evidence are lawfully adhered to in all stages of police investigation, and duly sanction those who err to fulfill this mandate,” said de Lima in a statement.
“It is a grave injustice to accuse anyone of a crime – worse, kill him – without giving him the chance to defend himself before the court,” she added.
De Lima has filed Senate Resolution No. 600, which calls on the appropriate committee to probe the measures taken by the PNP to preserve evidence and to ensure their proper handling and safekeeping at all stages of the investigation up to finality of any resulting court proceedings, including their ultimate disposition.
She cited several reports where the arresting officers purportedly planted evidence at the crime scenes to justify their killings of suspected offenders.
For instance, in September last year, De Lima recalled that Public Attorney's Office (PAO) forensic lab chief Erwin Erfe reportedly claimed that the crime scene where 19-year-old Carl Arnaiz was killed was apparently staged.
This was after PAO re-examined the crime scene on Sept. 7 in which they concluded that “there were no traces of blood… it was a secondary crime scene.”
The then Commission on Human Rights chief Chito Gascon also cited Reuters’ report last April when two undisclosed senior PNP officials revealed that the PNP has received cash payments for executing drug suspects, planting evidence at crime scenes and carrying out most of the killings they have long blamed on vigilantes.
“The Senate investigation is important to shed light on these disturbing trends,” she said.
“In order to start regaining people’s trust and to maintain the integrity and stringency of police investigation, the PNP should never, in any circumstances, tamper with evidence and undermine eyewitness testimonies,” she stressed. (Hannah Torregoza)