Bato: Drug deaths homicide, not EJK

MANILA, Philippines - It’s just plain homicide, not extrajudicial killing (EJK), Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said of the thousands of deaths in the administration’s vicious war on drugs.

He told media yesterday the 7,000 alleged EJK cases was not correct.

“So forget about ‘EJK,’ don’t use that term. Those killings were not sponsored by the state, or by the PNP. In fact we’re prosecuting policemen involved in wrongdoing,” Dela Rosa said in Filipino at a briefing at Camp Crame yesterday.

The Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) showed 6,011 homicide cases. At present, a total of 1,398 cases are confirmed to be drug-related while 3,785 are still being investigated.

DIDM chief Director Augusto Marquez said killings are initially considered homicide, while those deemed premeditated are classified as murder.

He said under Administrative Order 35, EJK covers killings of members of the media, activists and advocates of agrarian reform.

Dela Rosa pointed out that only the media and other sectors used the term EJKs to refer to killings of some drug offenders.

“Give me one single presentation that the PNP showed the term EJK. It’s the media that is insisting to use the term EJK, let’s face it. That’s true. Sinusubo po ninyo sa amin yung term na EJK na yan kasi gusto nyo. You’re ramming the term EJK down our throat because that’s what you like,” Dela Rosa told reporters.

But he clarified not all members of the media were giving incorrect information.

“Some sectors in the media want to make it appear the killings were state sponsored. Personally I cannot stomach giving orders to kill anyone. I will never do that,” he said in Filipino.

The PNP re-launched its anti-illegal drug campaign dubbed Oplan Double Barrel Reloaded last March 6, or about a month after President Duterte ordered its suspension following the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo allegedly by police officers inside Camp Crame last Oct. 18.

Since the launch of Double Barrel Reloaded, 60 drug offenders have been killed and 4,160 others arrested in police operations.

During the period, police operatives visited a total of  205,760 houses leading to the surrender of 25,319 drug users and pushers.

Meanwhile, civil society organizations (CSOs) involved in drug rehabilitation as well as human rights groups said the war on drugs was also causing the ranks of the country’s poorest of the poor to swell.

“Since the beginning, the average is 1,000 (EJKs) a month. So if you multiply that for six years, that’s 72,000,” Fr. Amado Picardal, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities, said. “Usually, they are breadwinners,” Picardal pointed out.

“This is the worst form of violence against women and children perpetrated by the government,” Picardal said at the forum “A Gendered and Child Perspective on EJKs and the War on Drugs” at the Sulo Riviera Hotel in Quezon City yesterday.

“Nobody in the community comes to their aid. Nobody gives abuloy (donation for the dead). Nobody comes to help because they don’t want to be identified as a friend of the deceased’s family,” Ernesto Anasarias, executive director of the Balay Rehab Center, said at the same forum.   – With Rainier Allan Ronda