MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice will focus on Philippine National Police deadly “war on drugs” operations in certain urban areas in its continuing review of the Duterte administration’s bloody anti-narcotics campaign, an official of the agency said.
DOJ Undersecretary Adrian Sugay acknowledged that they have around 6,000 more PNP “war on drugs” operations that resulted in deaths left for review, but they only have a few months left in the term.
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“So we discussed with Secretary [Menardo Guevarra] here at the DOJ that maybe we should concentrate in certain urban areas,” Sugay said in Filipino at Thursday’s Laging Handa briefing.
The DOJ on Wednesday made public its matrix on its review of 52 cases where the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service found direct liability on police officers involved in “war on drugs” operations that resulted in deaths. Of these, one case was tagged as non-related to the anti-narcotics campaign, while suspects in a separate case were not killed.
As of August 31, #RealNumbersPH records show that there have been 6,191 persons who died in anti-narcotics operations. The government has maintained that those who were killed had resisted arrest but the DOJ-led review has raised questions on the "nanlaban" narrative used by the police.
“If you can notice on the information table, you can see that Visayas and maybe some areas in Bicol region, and maybe some areas in Mindanao, [National Capital Region] are not included,” Sugay pointed out.
“So what we will do is the directive of our secretary, maybe we should go after cases in urban areas and let’s concentrate reviewing on those case folders,” he added.
Sugay added that PNP General Guillermo Eleazar said they are ready to make available the said case files.
DOJ panel review
The published matrix includes docket numbers, names of killed suspect/s, places and dates of incidents — with some dating as far back as 2016 — and the DOJ review panel’s summary observations.
The matrix also showed that most police officers involved were only suspended for lapses, with cops in one case only getting a reprimand. It also revealed that in at least seven cases, suspects who supposedly shot at cops tested negative in gunpowder paraffin tests. In some cases, records were also incomplete.
READ: DOJ review finds lapses in 'drug war' ops commonly punished with suspension
The review of these cases is contained in the DOJ panel’s second report, with the first concentrating on a few provinces with the highest incidence of police operations resulting in deaths, particularly in Bulacan and Pampanga. In this review, the DOJ found that police failed to follow protocols in many anti-drug operations.
Guevarra himself told the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2020 of the Philippine government’s review of 5,655 “war on drugs” operations that resulted in deaths.
But lawyers from the Free Legal Assistance Group said that the DOJ matrix “barely scratches the surface and is grossly insufficient and inconsistent with the government’s commitment under international law to provide effective review of cases involving alleged extralegal killings.”
The International Criminal Court has also launched an investigation into Duterte and his men over allegations of crimes against humanity over the bloody “war on drugs” in the country.