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 joined the filing of the bill, which was first introduced during the 19th Congress following the Quad Comm’s investigation into unlawful killings outside the judicial process.
The bill 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. It also holds senior military or police officials equally liable if they instruct subordinates to carry out EJKs.
Under the proposed Anti-Extrajudicial Killing Act, the measure also establishes the Extrajudicial Killings Claims Board under the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), tasked with processing and approving monetary and non-monetary reparations for victims’ families, ranging from P250,000 to P500,000. The Department of Health and Department of Social Welfare and Development will also be mandated to provide psychosocial and educational support.
