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HRW wants independent probe over police exec’s claim cops hired as drug lords’ hitmen


Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Duterte administration to establish an independent commission to investigate the liability of police officers, if any, in the widespread killing of drugs suspects.

The HRW made the pitch after the revelation of Chief Superintendent Debold Dinas, PNP Chief for Central Visayas, last week that the policemen in Visayas are being hired by drug lords as hitmen.

In a Facebook live interview with Cebu Daily News, Dinas was quoted as saying that the hitmen responsible for the recent drug-related killings in Cebu and nearby provinces are “most likely retired military or police officers or there are active police officers.”

“The admission by a senior police official that police officers are working as hitmen for drug syndicates is yet more evidence of the Philippine government's complicity in ‘drug war’ killings,” Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said in a statement.

“Given the total failure of the police to stop these abuses, it’s clear that any serious investigation of the police role in the war on drugs needs full independence,” Adams added.

The HRW argued that the commission which will probe the policemen should not be sanctioned by the Philippine National Police and the Office of the President, while its members should include investigators from the Commission on Human Rights and representatives of non-government organizations with recognized expertise.

“Chief Superintendent Dinas' suggestion that the police hitmen are rogue officers doesn’t pass the laugh test. President [Rodrigo] Duterte has made it clear over and over again that he wants drug dealers and users killed so there is no reason to think these are rogue operations. It’s time for an independent commission to be created to officially identify those responsible and begin the process of accountability for mass murder,” Adams pointed out.

The HRW's probe on drug war killings had earlier revealed the involvement of police officers who routinely falsified evidence by planting weapons and illegal drugs on suspects’ bodies and such modus operandi is being used not only by the police officers but by their agents as well.

Back in February, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it was already conducting preliminary examination on President Duterte for his alleged crimes against humanity due to thousands of drug war killings.

The ICC's action stemmed from the complaint filed by lawyer Jude Sabio, legal counsel of self-confessed hit man and Davao Death Squad member, Edgar Matobato.

Matobato has testified in a Senate probe that he used to kill people on orders of then Davao City mayor Duterte.

Based on police records, over 4,000 drug suspects have been killed in legitimate anti-drug police operations. Rights groups based locally and abroad, however, including the HRW, put the casualties of drug war killings at 20,000. — MDM, GMA News

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