Human Rights Watch reminds PNP: Follow due process

Human Rights Watch (HRW) over the weekend underscored the importance of following due process, reacting to the government's claim that all 3,800 killed in the campaign against illegal drugs were drug dealers who fired back at the police.

"Firstly, it doesn't really matter whether somebody is involved with drugs or not. It's no justification or excuse to murder them. There is due process; that's part of the international human rights framework. There's a requirement of arrest warrants, trials, convictions, punishment, according to law," HRW Geneva advocacy director John Fisher said in an interview with GMA News Online.

"Everyone has the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty and clearly, there is not even a semblance of judicial process taking place here. That's why they're called extrajudicial executions—because they happen without judicial process," he added.

Fisher was reacting to remarks made by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano that all the thousands killed in the campaign against illegal drugs were dealers who resisted the police.

"They're claiming that in every single case, which now total in the thousands... That's simply not a credible response that every single suspect who has been killed and thousands have been killed in 'self-defense'," he said.

"As I say, that simply reinforces the need for some kind of international objective assessment, not just relying to the police or government who have obviously every interest in justifying their own action," he added.

'Absurd'

Fisher also cast doubt on the police's claim that there have been no extrajudicial killings during Duterte's administration.

"I understand that the PNP initially claimed that there was one case of extrajudicial claims in the whole of the Philippines and then revised that down to zero after careful consideration," he said.

Philippine National Police spokesperson Dionardo B. Carlos earlier said that the killing of Catanduanes-based journalist Larry Que is the one confirmed EJK since July last year, but has since retracted his statement, saying it is not yet a confirmed EJK case.

"Obviously, the claim is absurd. On the government's own tallies, I think at the beginning of this year they estimated more than 3,000 people have been killed. Our own numbers suggest that the actual total is higher, but in any event, it's in the thousands," Fisher said.

The meaning of 'extrajudicial'

Fisher added that the administration's response to the UNHRC's recommendations is telling.

"What we saw in the Philippines' government response to the United Nations is that it can't be an extrajudicial killing if it's perpetrated in the name of fighting the campaign against illegal drugs," he added.

He noted, however, that this is not acceptable by global standards.

"Now that's simply false as a matter of international law. 'Extrajudicial' means it's happening without a judicial process and clearly these killings are happening without a judicial process," he said.

"The Philippines, it's a beautiful country, the people are very welcoming, there's much to be proud of here, but does the country really want to be known as the killing capital of Southeast Asia?" he added.

Looking forward, Fisher said the government must open the Philippines to an independent international body which would look deeper into the bloody campaign against illegal drugs.

"We were encouraged I think that the very day after the joint statement at the UN was delivered by Iceland on behalf of dozens of countries, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres met with the Foreign [Secretary] Cayetano who indicated that 'yes, we're aware of the problem and we are open to some kind of international scrutiny'," he said.

"Now clearly, we haven't seen any indication that the government is willing to act upon that and we measure governments by their deeds, not by their words. The fact that there has been no meaningful investigation process certainly calls into question the Philippines' own willingness to investigate these deaths," he added. — BM, GMA News