The Department of Justice vowed Wednesday to hold a meeting with various law enforcement agencies to tackle “ways and means of avoiding the use of unnecessary force in the conduct of legitimate operations.”
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra stressed that the meeting with the officials of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines was necessary to address to prevent the use of unnecessary force in undertaking police operations.
Guevarra made the statement after the United Nations’ Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the deaths of nine persons suspected of ties with communist rebels in South Luzon provinces.
“We understand the concern of the UN-OHCHR. That is why the DOJ has ordered a thorough investigation of the incidents,” Guevarra said in a text message.
Guevarra assured that the deaths of nine persons would be investigated either by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) or by the inter-agency task force on extra-judicial killings.
He has ordered the NBI to determine if the incidents would fall under the investigative jurisdiction of the Administrative Order 35 Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right of Life, Liberty and Security of Persons. The committee is headed by the DOJ.
The UN-OHCHR said in a statement: “We are appalled by the apparent arbitrary killing of nine activists in simultaneous police-military operations in Batangas, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces surrounding Metro Manila in the Philippines in the early hours of Sunday morning.”
However, it said it welcomed “the Government’s commitment to investigate these cases, which will be a critical test for the domestic investigative mechanisms it has established for cases of this kind.”
“The United Nations is working with the Government to strengthen these mechanisms, but we stress that these must be prompt, transparent, and effective in order to meet international standards,” it added.
“The High Commissioner’s June 2020 Human Rights Council report on the Philippines documented a serious lack of due process in police operations, and near-total impunity for the use of lethal force by the police and the military,” it said.
The UN body urged the police to take urgent measures to prevent the use of excessive force resulting in loss of lives during law enforcement operations.
Meanwhile, Guevarra said incidents of death during police operation against illegal drugs, such as the one in Valencia City, Bukidnon were “automatically investigated an referred to the Regional Internal Affairs Service of the PNP.”
“If properly authenticated, the video would be very useful and relevant piece of evidence in determining the liability lies,” he said.
“So let’s wait and see how the PNP authorities would deal with this situation,” he added.
According to him, the DOJ-led review panel would continue to look into incidents of death during illegal drug operations in the country in other parts of the country, including Region 10.