DRUG WAR | Human rights agency finds a pattern of excessive violence in Duterte’s war on drugs

November 2, 2021 , 06:20 PM

By Clarist Mae Zablan, News5 Digital

(November 2, 2021) – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has found a disturbing pattern of violence which resulted in thousands of deaths in President Rodrigo Duterte’s centerpiece program, the war on drugs, in the last five years, one of its commissioners said on Tuesday.

In a report, the CHR had investigated at least 451 cases which had resulted in deaths of suspected street-level drug peddlers, couriers and users in the last five years and found the police violated its own police procedures and rules of engagement, Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana said.

She said 466 out of 705 drug personalities died in shootouts with the police who claimed they resisted arrest or initiated aggression, which were infamously called “nanlaban.”

“Notably, the Supreme Court, in decision on the plea of the self-defense of law enforcement, ruled that the location of a deceased aggressor’s gunshot wounds may suggest an intent to kill and not just to defend oneself,” Pimentel-Gana said in a statement.

Standard police protocols only allow “necessary and reasonable” force against resistant suspects, but the CHR report found only two percent or 11 victims survived in these incidents, raising suspicions of possible abuse of strength and intent to kill by the officers.

At least 87 victims had gunshot wounds on the head, chest, trunk, and abdomen, giving them no chance to survive.

The findings are part of the total 579 incidents in which the CHR had investigated. At least 104 incidents were committed by unidentified perpetrators. Another 24 incidents lacked enough information. The rest involved law enforcement agencies, mostly the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The CHR findings supported earlier observations made by the Department of Justice, which reviewed only 52 drug war-related cases. Like the CHR findings, the DOJ also noted it lacked material evidence to support the police’s “nanlaban” claims.

The justice department’s investigators have sent their findings to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for filing of cases against erring law enforcers who did not observe and follow standard procedures.

Pimentel-Gana said the CHR also found several discrepancies in the eyewitnesses’ accounts, including allegations the anti-illegal drug operations might not have actually happened, and that the so-called “nanlaban” victims could not have initiated a shootout or were already under police custody when they were killed.

Based on witnesses’ accounts, police may also have planted evidence, like sachets of drugs, and that the shootouts were staged. There were some victims who may not have been the intended targets of the police’s operations.

Due to limitations in access to police records and availability of reports, the CHR report only covered cases in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon, Pimentel-Gana said, adding the commission observed the killings to be widespread.

CHR urged the Duterte government to ramp up its investigations on the drug war killings, and honor its commitment to exact justice for its victims.

The CHR appealed to lawmakers to enact a policy that will punish extrajudicial killings (EJKs) based on international standards. It also urged the Supreme Court to develop a body of jurisprudence adhering to the principle of precedence to prevent courts from flip-flopping in their decisions on these incidents.

“With thousands of cases left to be scrutinised, we urge the government to do more in investigating deaths being linked to the so-called drug war. There is a clamour for justice waiting to be answered,” Pimentel-Gana said.

The justice department also promised to look into the rest of drug war killings.

(MM)

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