President Duterte has signed a new law giving the chief of the Philippine National Police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) the power to subpoena people and documents in criminal investigations. But “such powers shall be solely exercised by the aforementioned officials and may not be further delegated to any other person or office,” the law said. The House had earlier passed a bill to restore the power of the CIDG to issue subpoenas. Its Senate counterpart sought to allow the PNP chief, CIDG director and deputy director to issue subpoenas during investigations. The final version of the bills amended a provision in the DILG law that gave the power to issue a subpoena and subpoena duces tecum only to the National Police Commission (Napolcom).

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer March 09, 2018 23:03 UTC