Murder or homicide complaints may be filed against 153 policemen for their involvement in the 51 cases of alleged extrajudicial killings arising from anti-illegal drugs operations, Justice Undersecretary Adrian Ferdinand Sugay said Tuesday.
In a media forum, Sugay said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is currently reviewing the cases to determine if there is substantial evidence to file criminal cases against the policemen.
“When it comes to criminal liability, which is the subject of the DOJ’s ongoing review and the ones referred to the NBI, if it would be seen that there was intent to kill the illegal drugs suspect, they might be charged with murder or at the very least homicide,” Sugay said.
The cases were forwarded to them by the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service (PNP-IAS).
Based on what they have seen, there were policemen who did not follow protocol in the anti-drug operations, Sugay said. The NBI could also use the information available in the case folders submitted by the PNP-IAS such as the reports of the Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO) teams, results of paraffin tests and ballistic tests and the initial investigation reports.
Sugay said it will be up to the NBI to determine whether to file complaints before the DOJ or to conduct further investigation for case build-up.
The PNP earlier found administrative liability against these police officers.
Sugay said the creation of the DOJ-led panel to review the drug war cases was not in response to the pressure from the International Criminal Court (ICC), since they started the review last year.
“Whether or not there is an ICC investigation, whether or not there’s pressure from anybody, we will prosecute those involved when there’s a complaint and it was found that something happened,” he said.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the DOJ panel has also begun reviewing cases based on 107 drug operations submitted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
“Actually, we have scrutinized these case folders from the PDEA, but we need to get more information. That is where we are going now,” Guevarra said.
On Oct. 1, Guevarra and PNP chief Gen. Guillermo T. Eleazar met to discuss the DOJ findings on the review of the 51 cases.
During the meeting, Sugay said Guevarra and Eleazar both agreed to hold accountable those involved.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will prepare his defense against an ICC probe into his deadly drug war, after previously insisting he would not cooperate.
ICC judges authorized in September a full-blown investigation into Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign, which rights groups estimate has killed tens of thousands of people, saying it resembled an illegitimate and systematic attack on civilians.
“I will prepare for my defense in the ICC,” Duterte said in a pre-recorded speech released Monday, in his first public comments on the probe.
“Just stick to the facts because there are records of it. I am not threatening you — just don’t cheat me on the evidence,” Duterte said in the speech, which came two days after he declared he would retire from politics.
Duterte has repeatedly attacked the world’s only permanent war crimes court and insisted it has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
The authoritarian firebrand pulled Manila out of the ICC after it launched a preliminary probe, but the Hague-based court says it has jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member.
Duterte has repeatedly said there is no official campaign to illegally kill addicts and dealers, but his speeches have included incitements to violence, and he previously told police to kill drug suspects if their lives were in danger.
Duterte said in the Monday speech he would protect officers carrying out the war on drugs “as long as you obey the law.”
“It’s on me, not on you,” Duterte said.
“I will answer for it and if someone should go to prison, I will be
the one to go to prison.”
Three policemen were sentenced in 2018 to decades in prison for murdering 17-year-old Kian delos Santos during an anti-narcotics sweep in 2017, the first and only conviction so far against officers carrying out Duterte’s war on drugs.
Carlos Conde, Human Rights Watch senior researcher for the Philippines, said Duterte sounded like “a really scared man.”
“He knows he will be held accountable, and the ICC presents the best opportunity for that to happen,” Conde said.
“He’s scared of an ICC conviction and, perhaps worse, losing… face (with) police officers who followed his murderous orders but are now realizing that they, too, are accountable.”
Duterte, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term as president, declared in August he would run for the vice-presidency.
But in a surprise announcement Saturday, he said he would retire–which was met with deep skepticism among analysts.
Duterte made a similar announcement in September 2015, saying he “will retire from public life for good”, only to declare his presidential bid two months later.
Duterte has not named a successor but indicated his daughter Sara would run alongside his longtime aide Senator Christopher Go.
Analysts say she would likely protect Duterte from criminal charges in the Philippines, and ICC prosecutors.
So far, she has denied plans to run for president.
Surveys have shown Sara Duterte, boxing great Manny Pacquiao and celebrity mayor Francisco Domagoso are the front runners, along with the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Also on Tuesday, senatorial bet Samira Gutoc said the war on drugs could have been Duterte’s greatest achievement were it not for the thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings attributed to it.
Speaking on ANC’s Headstart program, Gutoc said instead of the drug war, the administration’s greatest achievement was the creation of the Bangsamoro region, which gives 4 million people a chance for peace. With AFP
