(Eagle News) — Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Thursday, Jan. 17, welcomed the Alliance of Concerned Teachers’ filing of a petition seeking to put a stop to the Philippine National Police’s information gathering on its members.
In a statement, Año, however, also stood by the police’s intelligence gathering, describing it as routine work.
He noted Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison himself admitted ACT was one of the group’s fronts.
“The PNP will be guilty of dereliction of duty and negligence if it were to do nothing about Sison’s admission that is making the rounds of social media,” Año said, adding that the right to privacy was “not absolute and may nevertheless succumb to an overriding state interest deemed legitimate and compelling” based on several Supreme Court decisions.
In asking the Court of Appeals to put a stop to what it said was the implementation of police memoranda ordering the profiling on its members, ACT argued the documents were illegal and were made with “grave abuse of discretion,” among others.
