Cayetano claims 70,000 EJKs recorded during Noy watch

MANILA, Philippines -  Some 70,000 extrajudicial and unresolved killings were recorded during former president Benigno Aquino III’s term – something that critics and international rights groups should not gloss over in hitting the Duterte administration’s brutal war against drugs, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said yesterday.         

Cayetano was commenting on the strong warnings issued by foreign agencies, including the US Department of State, on the thousands of extrajudicial killings attributed to President Duterte’s seven-month-old campaign against illegal drugs.         

The senator noted that the State Department report covered the country from January 2016 to the present, which means it also included incidents of extrajudicial killings that occurred during the last six months of the Aquino administration.       

“There are extrajudicial killings but these are not state-sponsored. There have been 10,000 to 14,000 every year or about 70,000 during the entire Aquino administration,” Cayetano told radio station dzBB.

The senator said he based his numbers on records of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Statistics Authority.

“Why should we compare figures? Because they are used in deception and miscommunication, to make it appear there is genocide and crimes against humanity,” he said. Cayetano said international human rights groups and detractors are lumping together the over 7,000 recorded killings since July 1, 2016 as “extrajudicial executions,” when over 2,500 were from legitimate police operations, and a significant portion of the remainder were plain homicide or murder cases that cannot be attributed to the war on drugs.              

He said the difference between Duterte and Aquino is that the latter was seen to be “politically correct” in his statements and had waged much less anti-drug operations during his term.           

He said Duterte has nothing against criticisms but was peeved by the hypocrisy of some of his detractors.   

Cayetano said the deaths attributed to legitimate police operations would understandably go up, as there has been a 408-percent increase in anti-drug operations or 90,000 operations in seven months, compared to only 46,000 during the Aquino administration.    

He said Duterte’s tough language is also necessary, as it is one that drug lords understand and fear.