No. of cops involved in rights abuses down in 2016, but 2017 already has 57 cases in Q1

The number of police officers involved in alleged human rights violations went down from 2014 to 2016 despite the Duterte administration’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs, the Philippine National Police Human Rights Affairs Office said Wednesday.

Chief Supt. Dennis Siervo, PNP HRAO director, said they recorded 174 human rights violations allegedly committed by police officers in 2014. He said the number slid down to 131 in 2015 and further went down to 105 in 2016, a decline by almost 40 percent compared to 2014.

“There is a downward trend on personnel involved in human rights violations so pababa despite yung half of the previous year there was a change of administration,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday.

“If you think the war on illegal drugs will escalate the number of human rights violations, the statistics show that it goes down. It did not contribute to the rise of human rights violations,” Siervo added.

He said most of the complaints they received involved homicide, illegal arbitrary detention, or unlawful arrest, and rape.

The police official, however, cannot say how many of the cases were related to drug operations.

"Hindi pa naman na-segregate yung totality for the year, there were 105 PNP personnel involved last year," he said.

He added that so far this year, 56 police officers were subject of human rights violation complaints.

"As of this date, March, 56. So tinitignan pa namin ito," he said.

Asked if he was alarmed with the the first quarter figure as it was already half of the cases filed last year, Siervo said he could not tell if this year's figure will top last year's.

"The year has not yet ended, who knows. I cannot predict of this will rise or this will fall, we will have to wait. If we think that 56 is already half then maybe my office will have to step up our drive on how to prevent the occurrence of such violations," he said.

He said they were actively going around the country to review the operational procedures and remind the personnel about professionalism, competency, and respect for human rights.

"I just came from Region 7 and 8 and sinasabi na namin na ito 'yung nangyayari," he said. 

The campaign against illegal drugs started in July when President Rodrigo Duterte took office. It took a short respite in January when the President ordered the disbandment of  PNP's Anti-Illegal Drug Group but resumed in March. 

Vice President Leni Robredo earlier claimed extrajudicial killings (EJK) in the Duterte administration have reached 7,000.

The Philippine National Police, however, said of the 6,011 homicide cases recorded from July 1, 2016 to March 24, 2017, only 1,398 or 23.2 percent are drug related and 828 or 13.8 percent were not drug related. 

Sixty-three percent or 3,785 cases have yet to be determined. — MDM, GMA News