THE DUE PROCESS AND EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSES OF THE PHILIPPINE CONSTITUTION MUST BE FOLLOWED

By Bayawanon

Art. 3 Section 1 of the Philippine Constitution provides "No person shall be deprived of his life, property or liberty without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the law."
In connection to the aforementioned provision of the constitution of the Philippine Republic, does the commendable drug war of the present national leadership in line with the basic law of the land? I believe that the answer must be in the negative since the same national policy is not in line with the due process and equal protection clauses of the Philippine Constitution.

The due process clause of the Philippine Constitution unequivocally provides "No person shall be deprived of his life, property or liberty without due process of law", this constitutional clause is clearly violated by the authorities since the drug suspects nowadays usually cannot reach the courts for they are already executed on the ground that they are drug suspects, that they have allegedly possessed drugs and guns and that they fought back against the authorities. How can they show cause or how can they show their innocence when they are already judged and even executed extra-judicially?

The equal protection clause of the Philippine Constitution which also forms part of Art. 3. Sec. 1 also provides " nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the law", in relation to this, does this constitutional clause also being properly observed by the proper authorities enforcing the law IN RE : DRUG WAR vis-a-vis other crimes? The answer would still be in the negative since the war against criminality is almost limited only to the drug problem of the country. In order for this national policy in getting rid of drugs not to be in violation of the equal protection clause of the constitution, everyone being caught violating the law shall be executed without defending themselves in court too.
Every violator of the law like the drug addicts, drug pushers, drug protectors, prostitutes, pimps, corrupt government employees, thieves, smugglers, tax evaders, wife beaters, rapists, murderers etc.etc. shall be executed outside of the law too because in the eyes of the law all kinds of criminals are equal. Executing the drug addicts and drug pushers ONLY without due process of law would negate the equal protection clause of the constitution for it would make the other classes of criminal special over the drug criminals, hence the war against drugs is actually PURELY AND SIMPLY not in consonance with the constitution.

In conjunction to this, I propose that the state should not just limit itself on its war on drugs, instead there must be a WAR AGAINST CRIMINALITY, but the existing laws like the constitution, the revised penal code, the rules on criminal procedure, the rules on evidence and other special penal laws shall be observed properly in fighting the same for we are living in a government of laws and not of men.