Gascon tags Duterte admin for doublespeak as PNP withholds reports on slays

Commission on Human Rights chairman Chito Gascon accused President Rodrigo Duterte of engaging in doublespeak as the Philippine National Police continued to withhold case folders of 946 incidents allegedly related to the war on drugs.

In an ambush interview on Friday, Gascon said the CHR would continue to "monitor all actions taken" by the PNP as the police are expected to resumed their role in the war on drugs.

He requested the PNP to fulfill their promise of handing them the case folders of some 946 cases of alleged drug-related extrajudicial killings on their desk.

"The President did not give clearance to the police to deliver public records to another state institution, the Commission on Human Rights. So if the Commission on Human Rights has difficulty in securing these public records from the police, after the President himself declared a day before in his first SONA that he will practice freedom of information, there's doublespeak here," Gascon said.

"When we met, he was cordial. He was hopeful that we might get to the bottom of all this, but then three months after, they have not yet submitted any of these case folders to us," he added.

Gascon said the PNP was open to handing them the files during their meeting three months ago, and that Duterte had even announced his government's commitment to Freedom of Information in his State of the Nation Address.

Since then, however, police had said that Duterte did not give them the clearance to hand CHR the case files necessary for their investigation to proceed.

The CHR is investigating a total of 946 EJK cases in the Philippines.

They are still waiting for the PNP to give them case folders — public documents that should be accessible to a state institution like CHR — related to these incidents. pic.twitter.com/B14neqreYT

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) November 24, 2017

Gascon said the 946 cases involving 1,151 could only be the tip of the iceberg as regards alleged extrajudicial killings in connection with the administration's campaign against drug personalities.

"It depends on who's counting, di ba? If the police and the official government's count is to be relied on, the numbers are a little below 4,000 police-related deaths, and then another unknown assailants, we're talking about 7,000 to 8,000 killed. NGOs and other monitors are suggesting the number is over 10,000," he explained.

The CHR and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) signed a memorandum of agreement on Friday to provide families of victims of human rights violations who cannot afford legal counsel access to justice through voluntary lawyers. —NB, GMA News