Leaders of the House Quad Committee in the 19th Congress on Wednesday refiled a landmark measure classifying extrajudicial killing (EJK) as a heinous crime and seeking justice for the victims of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
House Bill 1629 is jointly authored by Reps. David Suarez (Quezon, 2nd District), Bienvenido Abante Jr. (Manila, 6th District), Romeo Acop (Antipolo, 2nd District), Zia Alonto Adiong (Lanao del Sur, 1st District), Paolo Ortega V (La Union, 1st District), Ernesto Dionisio Jr. (Manila, 1st District), Rodge Gutierrez (1-RIDER Party-list), Lordan Suan (Cagayan de Oro City, 1st District), Jay Khonghun (Zambales, 1st District), Gerville Luistro (Batangas, 2nd District), and Jonathan Keith Flores (Bukidnon, 2nd District).
Ortega, Abante, Luistro, Khonghun, Adiong, Dionisio, and Suan personally took part in the filing of the bill.
The measure was first filed during the 19th Congress as an offshoot of the Quad Comm’s investigation into unlawful killings committed outside the justice system.
It defines EJK as the taking of life without the sanction of a lawful judicial process and imposes life imprisonment on public officials, state agents, or any person acting under state authority who commits or orders such killings.
“Extrajudicial killings, defined in this bill as the taking of life without the sanction of a lawful judicial process, pose a serious challenge to democratic institutions and erode public confidence in the justice system,” the authors said in the bill’s explanatory note.
Under the proposed Anti-Extrajudicial Killing Act, senior military or police officials who instruct subordinates to carry out EJKs will be held equally liable.
The bill also establishes the Extrajudicial Killings Claims Board under the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to process and approve monetary and nonmonetary reparations for victims’ families.
The said families may receive compensation ranging from P250,000 to P500,000, depending on the circumstances of each case.
Agencies such as the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will also be mandated to provide psychosocial and educational support.
