MANILA – The National Press Club has asked Congress to amend the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 and remove the requirement that media workers be present during the inventory of seized illegal drugs.
Members of the press are put in danger each time they join antidrug operations of the police or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the press club president Rolando Gonzalo said.
The Philippines’ oldest and biggest press organization wrote Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Nov. 20, calling for the amendment of Republic Act 9165.
Sotto was the principal author of RA 9165. Arroyo signed the law when she was president in 2002.
Section 21 of the law states, “(1) the apprehending team having initial custody and control of the drugs shall, immediately after seizure and confiscation, physically inventory and photograph the same in the presence of the accused or the person/s from whom such items were confiscated and/or seized, or his/her representative or counsel, a representative from the media and the Department of Justice, and any elected public official who shall be required to sign the copies of the inventory and be given a copy thereof…”
With surveillance and body cameras now freely available for use, the presence of press works is no longer needed during antidrug operations and the inventory of seized drugs, said Gonzalo.
“There have been great advances in technology that, without the presence of the media, anti-drug operations can be conducted with greater transparency and on real time,” he said in a statement.
Pointing out the danger that joining antidrug operations pose on journalists, Gonzalo cited the case of press club member Tiburcio “Jojo” Trajano, a Remate reporter who was shot dead by suspects during a police-led operation in Rizal province on June 3, 2009.
For his part, the press club vice president Paul Gutierrez expressed concern that some drug cases might have been dismissed on technical grounds due to the failure of media workers to attend court hearings.
In some occasions the press club is furnished copies of bench warrants for journalists, Gutierrez said.
PDEA director general Aaron Aquino and the chairpersons of the Senate and House’s respective committees on drugs were furnished copies of the press club letter. (With Philippine News Agency/PN)
