HRW on plan to revive Alsa Masa: This will only mean more EJKs

International rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday denounced the reported plan of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to revive the Alsa Masa to help in combating criminality.

In a statement, HRW researcher for Asia Division Carlos Conde said this would only worsen the "human rights calamity" in the Philippines.

"Tapping this network to gather more intelligence – often nothing more than gossip and raw, unverified information – for use in the murderous campaign by the Duterte administration against suspected drug users and suspected criminals will only mean more extrajudicial deaths," Conde said.

Alsa Masa was an anti-communist vigilante group established in the 1980s.

Conde pointed out that due process and presumption of innocence are just two of the civil liberties which will be violated under the plan of police to revive the said group.

"This intelligence network, for all practical purposes, usurps the function of the courts to determine the culpability of a person accused of a crime and, worse, give the police justification to harm or kill suspects without due process of law," Conde stated.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) called on the government to ensure that strict guidelines would be observed once this plan prospers, noting that alleged human rights abuses brought by the Alsa Masa group should not happen again.

"The government must assure the country that this would not follow the history of the ‘Alsa Masa’ in 1980s known for its abuses, especially that the government has yet to resolve allegations of human rights violations allegedly linked to the current government drug campaign," the CHR said. — Anna Felicia Bajo/RSJ, GMA News