CHR: Don’t politicize findings on drug war deaths

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR)’s findings about the drug war killings must not be politicized, its spokesperson said Thursday after the independent body was accused of “black propaganda.”

Atty. Jacqueline de Guia said the CHR’s initial findings about police’s “intent to kill” in drug-related operations merely supported investigations being conducted by an inter-agency task force created to review drug war deaths. 

“Hindi sana lagyan ng kulay or bahid ng pulitika yung paglabas ng statement ni Commissioner [Gwendolyn] Pimentel-Gana doon sa mga initial findings the CHR patungkol sa kampanya laban sa droga,” she told GMA News Online.

(Let’s not politicize the statement of Commissioner [Gwendolyn] Pimentel-Gana about the initial findings of the CHR on the war on drugs.)

Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, who was Philippine National Police (PNP) chief when the Duterte administration launched its bloody anti-illegal drugs campaign in 2016, said the CHR has been singing the same tune for years now.

“They've been saying the same thing since 2016, it is now 2021. If they have the evidence then they should file appropriate charges in court otherwise their claims can be construed as black propaganda,” he said.

PNP spokesman Police Brigadier General Ildebrandi Usana also called on the CHR to submit victims’ complaints to the police.

A February report by the inter-agency task force showed that police failed to examine the weapons of drug suspects accused of fighting back. 

Nearly 6,000 drug personalities were killed between July 2016 and September 2020, government data showed. —LDF, GMA News