HRW urges government to independently probe police ‘hitmen’

MANILA, Philippines — Human Rights Watch called on the Philippine government to form an independent commission that would investigate the role of law enforcement officers in the killings of people allegedly involved in illegal drugs.
The commission of inquiry should be completely independent from the Office of the President and the Philippine National Police and should include investigators from the Commission of Human Rights and representatives from non-governmental organizations with recognized expertise, HRW stressed.
“It’s time for an independent commission to be created to officially identify those responsible and begin the process of accountability for mass murder,” HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said.
The New York-based organization made the call after Chief Superintendent Debold Sinas, chief of the PNP for the Central Visayas region, was quoted as saying that some of the hitmen hired were retired military or police officers.
“Kinsa man ni sila [hitmen]? Most likely retired nga army o mga pulis. Or naa pa gani aktibo wala lang ta kahibalo,” Sinas was quoted as saying in a report of Cebu Daily News.
(Who are these hitmen? Most likely these are retired military or police officers. Or there are active police officers we just don’t know.)
Sinas, however, said the police hitmen were scalawags in the service.
He made the statement following recent killing incidents—those staged by unidentified assailants—in Cebu City and elsewhere in Central Visayas.
The Freeman reported that a total of 254 suspected drug personalities have died in the region during “legitimate” police operations since President Rodrigo Duterte stepped into power.
Last month, the Senate minority bloc called for an inquiry into the series of killings in Cebu under the “one-time, big-time” anti-illegal drug operations of the PNP.
Adams stressed the admission of Sinas that cops are working as hitmen for drug syndicates shows “more evidence of Philippine government’s complicity in ‘drug war’ killings.”
“Chief Superintendent Sinas’ suggestion that the police hitmen are rogue officers doesn’t pass the laugh test. Duterte has made it clear over and over again that he wants drug dealers and users killed so there is no reason to think these are rogue operations,” Adams said.
A Social Weather Stations poll released last September showed that Filipinos are conflicted on claims of police that killed drug suspects resisted arrest. Twenty-six percent of adult Filipinos said they do not believe police claims of “nanlaban,” while 27 percent said the police are telling the truth.
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