The Commission on Human Rights said it wants to help ferret out the truth and culpability into drug-related extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration.
“The CHR welcomes the information table released by the Department of Justice on the 52 cases currently under investigation. We hope that government uses this opportunity to finally bring cases to courts. With thousands of cases left to be scrutinized, we urge the government to do more in investigating deaths being linked to the so-called drug war. There is a clamor for justice waiting to be answered,” Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana said.
“In aid of seeking truth and accountability behind deaths allegedly linked to the government’s anti-drug campaign, CHR offers its findings based on an earlier analysis of incidents of killings and violence documented since the said campaign started in 2016 until February 2020,” she noted.
The report covers 579 incidents found in Metro Manila, Region III and Region IV-A.
“While killings span across administrative regions, these areas have registered the highest numbers of killings allegedly linked to the government’s anti-drug campaign,” CHR said in a statement.
“At the same time, the status and content of the investigation records and reports available to CHR, as well as the recurring obstacles in accessing police records pertaining to cases in question, impacted the extent of the study,” it added.
“CHR’s report, nevertheless, was able to observe the widespread nature of killings,” Pimentel-Gana said.
From the sample of 579 cases, 870 were recorded as victims, at least 71 of whom are women, and at least 24 were minors.
Some 451 incidents of killings were allegedly attributed to police operations and that 104 were said to be committed by unidentified perpetrators and 24 incidents have no sufficient information as to the circumstances.
The 451 cases of killings allegedly linked to police operations tallied 705 victims and, out of this number, the police claimed 466 individuals initiated aggression or resisted arrest or the so-called “nanlaban” cases.
However, despite police protocols prescribing necessary and reasonable force in subduing resistance by an aggressor, only two percent or 11 individuals survived the alleged “nanlaban” incidents.
Records of at least 87 victims contained information on the wounds or injuries found — mostly multiple gunshot wounds on different parts of the body, usually the head, chest, trunk, and abdomen.
Blunt force and injury and lacerations were also found on some of the victims.
“It was also observed that for investigation reports secured by CHR from the police, 77 out of 90 reports complete with results of internal investigation findings contained recommendations that police operatives involved in the said incidents are either to be awarded, rewarded, or recognized,” Pimentel-Gana said.
“CHR stresses that speedy, impartial, and transparent investigations are crucial in delivering justice; thereby, addressing the observed ‘persistent impunity and formidable barriers to accessing justice’ flagged by the United Nations Human Rights Office to the Philippine Government,” she cited.
She appealed to Congress to enact a bill that defines and punishes extrajudicial killings based on international human rights laws and standards, and for the Supreme Court to develop a body of jurisprudence, adhering to the principle of stare decisis and the Bill of Rights found in the 1987 Constitution, to prevent courts from flip-flopping in their decisions toward the protection of their integrity and independence.
