EDITORIAL - Ending ‘autop-silip’

The Marcos administration has committed to investigate possible extrajudicial killings committed by the police in the campaign against illegal drugs. With about 6,200 drug killings acknowledged by the Philippine National Police, however, this commitment suffers from weak institutional capabilities to carry out a thorough and credible probe.

One inadequacy in particular stands out: an acute lack of forensic pathologists to determine the cause of death through scientific examination of body tissues or other parts. Such examination goes deeper than the basic autopsy conducted by medical examiners of the country’s law enforcement agencies. Such autopsies merely determine if a person died of disease or succumbed to a gunshot, knife wound, poison, strangulation or other unnatural causes.

Forensic pathology is a specialized field that requires years of education and training in medicine and forensics. The country currently has only two forensic pathologists. One of them, Dr. Raquel Fortun, determined through forensic examination that New Bilibid Prison inmate Cristito Villamor Palaña Jr. did not die of natural causes, as claimed by a Bureau of Corrections official who cited the lack of external injuries on the body. Instead Fortun said that Palaña, the alleged middleman in the murder of broadcaster Percy Lapid, likely died of asphyxiation through a plastic bag placed over his head. This manner of killing was subsequently confirmed by NBP inmates who were indicted for Palaña’s murder.

The government has invited a top forensic pathologist to help in efforts to look into possible cases of extrajudicial killings. Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz has gained renown for the use of forensic science to document and investigate EJKs, enforced disappearances, torture and arbitrary detention. As a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, he helped set up its forensic services unit and later served as its first director.

Tidball-Binz also happens to be the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. But Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has stressed that the government invited Tidball-Binz to visit as part of capacity building under the UN Joint Program, and not to directly conduct a probe on possible EJK victims in the course of the war on drugs.

Raquel Fortun’s work shows the importance of forensic pathology in scientific criminal investigation especially in cases involving human rights violations. Remulla is hoping to install at least one forensic pathologist in each of the country’s 17 regions. Physicians can be encouraged to undergo the additional years of training in forensic pathology. At the same time, the government should launch campaigns to encourage the youth to consider a career in forensics. The days of what Fortun has described as shoddy autopsies or “autop-silip” should end.