04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly The least this Court can do under the circumstances is to make clear to all and sundry, especially to members of police forces, that the authority conferred on them to maintain peace and order should be exercised with due regard to the constitutional rights, most especially so of those who belong to the lower-income groups. If in a case like the present, the full force of the penal statute is not felt by the perpetrator of the misdeed, then the law itself stands condemned. This we should not allow to happen.[5] (Emphasis supplied) Entrapment is allowed when it is undertaken with due regard to constitutional and legal safeguards. It has repeatedly been accepted as a valid means of arresting violators of the Dangerous Drugs Law.[6] (Emphasis supplied) The phrase "due regard" is commonly found in international treaties and conventions, like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) where the phrase appears at least 16 times. The phrase "due regard" as used in UNCLOS is explained as follows: [T]he requirement of "due regard" is a qualification of the rights of States in exercising the freedoms of the high seas. The standard of "due regard" requires all States, in exercising their high seas freedoms, to be aware of and consider the interests of other States in using the high seas, and to refrain from activities that interfere with the exercise by other States of the freedom of the high seas. As the ILC [which prepared drafts of the 1958 LOS Conventions], stated in its Commentary in 1956, "States are bound to refrain from any acts that might adversely affect the use of the high seas by nationals of other States." The construction in paragraph 2 recognizes that all States have the right to exercise high seas freedoms, and balances consideration for the rights and interests of all states in this regard.[7] (Emphasis supplied) The phrase "due regard," as used in the Convention on International Civil Aviation, is understood as giving rise to "a duty of `due regard' upon operators of state aircraft, and thus, upon military aircraft, for the safety of the navigation of civil aircraft."[8] Thus, "the `due regard' rule remains the principal treaty obligation imposed upon States for the regulation of the flight of military aircraft applicable during times of peace and armed conflict."[9] The Chairman of the MILF and its highest-ranking official, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, candidly admitted that the MILF's understanding is that the Constitution shall be amended to conform to the MOA-AD. In an ABS-CBN television interview aired nationwide on 20 August 2008, and widely reported in the newspapers, MILF Chairman Murad stated: It may be beyond the Constitution but the Constitution can be amended and revised to accommodate the agreement. What is important is during the amendment, it will not derogate or water down the agreement because we have worked this out for more than 10 years now.[10] (Emphasis supplied) elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 93/203