Duterte's attribution of 'drug war' killings to drug syndicates 'a ruse,' HRW says
MANILA, Philippines — A rights watchdog soundly rejected President Rodrigo Duterte's recent assertion that feuding drug gangs are responsible for the extrajudicial killings linked to his flagship campaign against illegal drugs.
"President Duterte’s claim that thousands of extrajudicial killings since 2016 are the result of rivalry between drug syndicates is specious, self-serving, and utterly without basis," Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday.
"No one should forget that the 'drug war' killings [began] immediately after Duterte was elected as president in 2016. Since then, thousands have died and with the exception of the case of Kian de los Santos, there has been no successful prosecution of either police officers or mysterious civilian killers," he added.
In a pre-recorded televised address aired Monday night, Duterte claimed that he once conducted a "discreet hearing" on the EJKs linked to his campaign against illegal drugs. "What reached me is that sometimes there is a rivalry of turf," he said in English and Filipino.
HRW cast doubt on whether the hearing took place at all, arguing that its "far-fetched conclusion was never disclosed to the public."
"If Duterte had serious doubts about the conduct of the police, all he needed to do was announce a thorough, credible investigation. Instead, he made sure that experienced international investigators, such as the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Agnes Callamard, were not permitted to set foot in the Philippines," Robertson said.
The president previously threatened to slap Callamard if she began her probe into the EJKs linked to the drug war. He also called former UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Huseein an “idiot” in 2016 and “empty-headed” in 2018.
"[HRW] and other groups credibly established that police or other local authorities perpetrated most of the killings. In many of these incidents, police routinely manufacture evidence, by planting drugs and weapons on dead suspects at the scene of the alleged crime, to justify their claim that the suspects had fought back," Robertson added.
He also pointed out that both the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency acknowledge that their anti-drug operations have resulted in the death of nearly 6,000 individuals. Despite this, HRW said the agencies have "no investigations to show in virtually all these cases."
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a report to the UN Human Rights Council in June, placed drug war fatalities at a much higher 8,000. Multiple rights groups in the Philippines estimate that the drug war's fatalities are as high as 30,000.
"Once again, Duterte is manufacturing a story, or ‘fake news’ to use the moniker he likes to use, to divert attention from killers in the ranks of the police to so-called drug syndicates. No one should be fooled by the president’s latest ruse," Robertson said.
Sen. Ping Lacson on Tuesday told reporters from Inquirer and ABS-CBN that while it may be "partly true" that some of the EJKs can be linked to rivalries between drug syndicates, "it cannot also be denied that rogue members of the law enforcement resort to killing drug suspects for various reasons." He added that this was "already validated when the Senate conducted inquiries sometime ago."
Lacson, a former national police chief, was chairman of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs when the upper chamber conducted a probe into the extrajudicial killings in 2016.
Reuters wins Pulitzers, the most prestigious awards in American journalism, in international reporting for its story on the methods of police killing squads in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and for feature photography documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
In covering the deadly drug war in the Philippines, Reuters reporters Clare Baldwin, Andrew R.C. Marshall and Manuel Mogato "demonstrated how police in the president’s 'drug war' have killed with impunity and consistently been shielded from prosecution," Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler says.
Sen. Francis Tolentino says he has agreed to serve as legal counsel for Sen. Bato dela Rosa before the International Criminal Court. — Xave Gregorio
Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa says he is “not worried” of the ICC’s resumption of investigation into the brutal war on drugs.
The Commission on Human Rights welcomes the verdict of a Caloocan court that convicted police officer Jeffrey Perez of torture and planting of evidence in the killings of teenagers Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
"The Commission hopes that more cases similar to Carl and Kulot will reach the courts," the government agency says in a statement.
"We hope that more eye witnesses will step forth and feel encouraged to help progress the thousands of drug-related killings still pending investigations and trials," it adds.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' work on the Philippines "is far from done" as victims of the bloody "war on drugs" continue to seek accountability and justice, the Human Rights Watch says.
"The Human Rights Council should adopt OHCHR’s recommendation that the high commissioner’s office continue to monitor and regularly report on the country’s rights situation," Carlos Conde, the senior researcher for Asia Division of the HRW, says in a statement.
"There’s no short-term solution to making real progress on accountability and providing justice for people in the Philippines," he adds.
Gabriela Women's Party supports the request of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan to resume probe on President Duterte's drug war killings. — The STAR/Sheila Crisostomo
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