Cabinet Security Cluster Officials Ordered
PNP s Warrantless Arrests and Searches

Senator Rodolfo G Biazon today raised the possibility that the low ranking agents of the PNP who were only following the orders of higher authorities when they effected the warrantless arrests and warrantless searches will be left to fend for themselves and used as cannon fodders or scapegoats while the higher authorities who issued the orders, merely washing their hands.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security cited that in the conduct of the DILG-PNP budget hearing last March 1, 2006, I asked General Lomibao whether the implementation of the illegal acts by the police was his own initiative or was he following orders from higher authorities.

His answer was that he was just following orders from higher authorities specifically instructions from the Cabinet Security Cluster.

He identified this cluster committee to include the heads of the DILG, DND, DOJ, the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Chief of the Philippine National Police.

Biazon asserted that these illegal acts of the law enforcement agencies victimized certain individuals and organizations by violating their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

It is therefore expected that these victims who include among others, Professor Randy David, former DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman, Congresswoman Riza Baraquel, Congressman Joel Virador and the Tribune newspaper outfit who had to suffer inconvenience, public humiliation and anxieties may exact redress for this wrong done to them.

If these individuals file charges, those to be accused would definitely have to include the law enforcement agents who committed these illegal acts and more importantly, the higher authorities who issued the order to commit these illegal acts, Biazon concluded.