ACT to appeal junking of petition vs police 'profiling' of members
MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers will appeal the Court of Appeals ruling that junked their petition against a supposed “profiling” of their members by the police.
The group said that they will file a motion for reconsideration to seek a reversal of the court’s decision and urged CA to “give more weight to substantive considerations over technicality issues.”
The group of teachers asked the appellate court to strike down as unconstitutional Philippine National Police memoranda to “inventory” members of the teachers’ union. They claim that the PNP’s act violates their members’ right to freedom of association as well as the Data Privacy Act.
The Philippine National Police initially denied the existence of police orders to "inventory" members of ACT, but later said the intelligence gathering on ACT members is part of their mandate as a law enforcement agency.
RELATED: 3 PNP officers sacked over leaked memo on ACT
The court dismissed ACT's petition on February 4 due to "infirmities", particularly the failure to attach a certified true copy of the assailed memoranda and missing details about the group's legal counsels.
The four-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Nina Antonio-Valenzuela did not touch on arguments raised by the teachers’ union.
ACT implored the appellate court to look into their plea as the ruling might embolden the police to continue their “illegal surveillance activities against civilians.”
They also raised that two of their leaders have received threats to their lives since the memorandum was leaked.
They added that they continue to receive reports of harassment and profiling of their members.
‘Substantial justice over infirmities’
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, who stood as legal counsels to ACT, also urged the court to take into account the teachers’ difficult circumstances.
They said that it is “not reasonable” for the PNP to issue a certified true copy of the assailed memoranda, which they pointed out, is “damning to them” and “have kept secret.”
“That is why the petitioners explicitly asked the court to issue a binding order to produce such memoranda,” the lawyers’ group added.
“Technical ‘infirmities’ must, on the balance, bow to the demands of substantial justice. After all, what the teachers are fighting for is the very protection of their fundamental rights and liberties,” NUPL said.
DILG: Petition merely propaganda
The Department of Interior and Local Government, for its part, welcomed the CA’s dismissal of the plea that it called a “propaganda.”
The DILG, in a statement, said that the petition “contained malicious and groundless accusations” against the police.
“It becomes clear as a 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,” the DILG added.
The CA ruling, however, did touch on the points raised by the petitioners and only focused on the “infirmities” of the petition.
The DILG also lamented that the ACT ran to the courts instead of entering into a dialogue with the PNP.
Superintendent Bernard Banac, PNP spokesperson, maintained that the police’s going to schools to identify members of ACT was carried out in line of duty,
The STAR quoted Banac in an interview with ONE News as saying: “The allegation that the PNP is having a crackdown on members of ACT, teachers and students, is devoid of basis and absolutely has no evidence. What happened was there was a leak of information but inherent to the function of the PNP is to gather information.”
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