House OKs bill that presumes drug suspects guilty until proven innocent

Rappler.com | MAR 2, 2021

The House of Representatives passed a bill providing for legal presumption on who is considered an
importer, financier, or protector of illegal drugs – meaning suspects would be presumed guilty upon
apprehension.

On Tuesday, March 2, lawmakers approved on final reading House Bill (HB) No 7814, which aimed to
give more teeth to Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

A total of 188 legislators – a majority of whom are allies of President Rodrigo Duterte – voted in favor of
HB 7814, while only 11 voted no and 9 abstained.

The Duterte-controlled House approved the bill just days after the shootout between agents of the
Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Most of the House members who opposed the bill or abstained from the vote raised red flags over the
HB 7814’s provisions that presumes the guilt of drug suspects without proper investigation by law
enforcement agents.

House committee on human rights chair Jesus “Bong” Suntay voted against the bill since it contained 20
presumptions of guilt on drug-related criminal acts that would result to a penalty of life imprisonment.

"I am in full support of this administration's campaign against illegal drugs and in this respect, I would
not want our country to be a transshipment destination of dangerous drugs. However, as a lawyer, I do
not want to send the wrong message to the PDEA, to the police authorities and the prosecution that an
accused may now be convicted on mere presumptions," said Suntay.

Under the bill, a person is immediately presumed to be a protector or coddler of illegal drugs if he or she
knows an importer or exporter and helps the latter evade arrest.

“Unless proven otherwise, a person who shields, harbors, screens, or facilitates the escape of, or
prevents the arrest, prosecution, or conviction of the importer or exporter is presumed to have
knowledge of, or has willfully consented to, the illegal importation or exportation and that he/she used
his/her influence, power or position,” read HB 7814.

HB 7814 also states that a person found in possession of a purchase order, receipt, bill of lading or
similar document related to the importation or exportation of illegal drugs “is, until proven otherwise,
presumed to have imported or exported” the illegal substances.

The bill likewise presumes a person is a drug financier if he or she would “cause the payment, raises,
provides or supplies money for or underwrites” the importation of illegal drugs.

Any evidence showing that money was transferred to a person or entity link to drug importer or
exporter would be considered “prima facie proof of consent to or knowledge” of the sender, transferor,
or issuer.

HB 7814 states this presumption may be overturned “upon presentation of proof that the importation
or exportation is authorized or valid.”

The bill also proposes a provision stating that “unless proven otherwise,” a person found present in the
immediate vicinity of an area where illegal drugs are being sold, delivered, or distributed “is presumed
to have been involved” in the illegal drug trade.

“Negligent” owners or lessors of properties used as secret laboratories for illegal drugs would be
penalized under HB 7814 with jail time ranging from 6 years and 1 day up 12 years, and a fine between
P500,000 to P1 million.
No more presumption of innocence

House committee on dangerous drugs chair Robert Ace Barbers defended the bill by saying the
proposed amendments would make it easier to go after drug suspects and their accomplices.

"If before, these personalities go scot-free, now these legal presumptions will put them on almost the
same footing as the drug suspects themselves because of the presence of factual circumstances that will
incriminate them and thus could make them liable under the amended law," said Barbers in a
statement.

"There will be no place for them to hide now and their world will be much smaller if these amendments
will be passed quickly," he added.

But Quezon City 6th District Representative Jose Christopher “Kit” Belmonte said HB 7814 violates the
presumption of innocence enshrined in the 1987 Constitution.

“Sa ngayon, sa giyera sa droga, madaming namamatay sa maling akala. Pati mga law enforcers natin sila-
sila, nagkakapatayan na nga,” said Belmonte.

“Pero the way nakasulat ang batas ngayon sa mga alanganing presumptions at presumptions on
presumptions na ipinasok natin, lalong maraming inosenteng mapapahamak sa maling akala,” he added.

House bill putting more safeguards in anti-drug law hurdles final reading
Philstar.com | March 2, 2021

The House of Representatives approved Tuesday a bill strengthening the existing drug prevention and
control laws to add safeguards including requirements on bodycams, penalties on landlords of drug
properties, among other additions to the original law.

Should it be enacted, the bill is now expanded to also penalize negligent lessors of any properties found
to be actively used as clandestine drug laboratories, among others.

Safeguards and significant additions

House Bill No. 7814, which consolidated various provisions of 11 other bills, adds a number of
amendments to Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, including a
definition of chemical substance dependence as:

"a condition of mental and/or physical dependence on any controlled precursor and essential chemical
or volatile substance, whether organic or manufactured, that affects the central nervous system,
characterized by the periodic or constantly repeated consumption of this substance and whose effects
vary depending upon the kind of controlled precursor and essential chemical taken by the dependent or
user."

Approved on its third and final reading with 189 affirmative votes, 11 negative votes, and 8 abstentions,
the bill also provides for a legal presumption on who is considered an importer, financier, and protector
or coddler of illegal narcotics as well as limits the validity of drug test certificates issued by accredited
drug testing centers to just three months.

The amendment identifying and penalizing drug coddlers reads:

"A person is presumed a protector or coddler if he/she knows the operator, maintainer, administrator or
manager of the den, dive or resrot and he/she uses his/her influence, power or position in shielding,
harboring, screening or facilitating the escape of the violator. A person is likewise presumed a protector
or coddler if he/she has knowledge or has reasonable ground to believe or to suspect that the said
operator, maintainer, administrator or manager actually operates, maintains, administers or manages a
den, dive or resort and he/she uses hisher influence, power or position in preventing the arrest,
prosecution or conviction of the violator."

The bill also amends Section 21, which touches on the custody and disposition of seized drugs, to
include a clause that says:

"the apprehending team mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be required to properly document
the anti-illegal drugs operations from the beginning until the end, through the use of a valid and
legitimate technology, including wearing body-worn cameras."

Under the same section, seized items are now also required to be "photographed, recorded, and
authenticated" under the law, while members of the media "may be invited" to cover anti-drug
operations "for journalism purposes only."

Section 29 on Criminal Liability for Planting of Evidence is also expanded to presume that any "planting
evidence" defenses in court is a complaint against any law enforcers or private individuals involved in
the arrest, search, and seizure of the suspect.

"Any person who is found guilty of willfully or intentionally using or implementing search warrant issued
based on perjurious or falsified documents" is also penalized.

Why does this matter?

That Congress recognizes chemical substance dependence as being affected by mental and physical
issues is significant since President Rodrigo Duterte has consistently implied that drug addicts are past
the point of recovery and rehabilitation.

Both the medical and the international community have long held that drug addiction is a health
problem more than anything else, though the chief executive's views on drug addicts are less than
flattering.

In a 2016 speech, the chief executive said that sustained methamphetamine usage for a year or more
would shrink the brain of a person, explicitly adding that “he is [therefore] no longer viable for
rehabilitation.”

The United Nations has urged the Philippine government to adopt a public health approach in the "drug
war" to comply with international human rights standards.

Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Surigao del Norte), who chairs the House panel on dangerous drugs, also said
in a statement earlier that the amendments requiring officers of the law to be wearing body cameras at
all times would have prevented the shootout between cops and anti-drug operatives in late February.

Through five separate chiefs of the Philippine National Police and nearly three years since the force was
afforded millions of pesos in funding, the full implementation of the project providing cops bodycams
remains inert and thrown into flux.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra at the 46th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in late
February also admitted before the international community that according to initial findings of a review
led by his department, personnel of the national police did not follow official police procedures on
validating whether "drug personalities" killed while supposedly violently resisting arrest really did so.

The amendments to Section 29 are also a significant safeguard in light of what rights groups say are
documented instances of cops planting evidence under the Duterte administration.

'Drug war failed'

Earlier Sunday, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that the incident between the PNP and PDEA, if indeed
motivated or caused by drug syndicates, is proof that the Duterte administration's flagship "war on
drugs" has not been successful.

"We have to be honest with ourselves. The 'drug war; really failed. Almost nothing changed with the
illegal drugs situation. It's still chronic. If it succeeded, then there should be a significant dent on the
drug syndicates," he said in Filipino. "What else can we do with the one year remaining? We still have to
deal with the pandemic and our other problems."

The former police chief's pronouncement runs counter to the consistent narrative of administration
officials that the anti-narcotics campaign has made significant strides in peace and order.

Both local and international organizations have said that the nightly killings only increased amid the
coronavirus-induced lockdowns, a claim proven and substantiated by the national government's own
publicly-released data.

READ: Fact check: Reported increase in 'drug war' deaths amid pandemic is backed by gov't data

Rights groups both here and abroad say the death toll of the anti-drug campaign may be as high as
30,000 deaths since Duterte's "war" began in 2016.

In November, then-PNP chief Camilo Cascolan acknowledged that almost 8,000 "drug personalities" had
been slain in official operations, where cops routinely claim that only suspects who fought back were
killed.

However, the latest data from the administration's Real Numbers PH campaign dialed this back to just
6,039 "persons who died during anti-drug operations."