SC asked to direct CHR, PNP, DOJ to probe EJKs in war on drugs

A group of lawyers has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to direct certain government agencies to look into the spate of alleged extrajudicial killings in connection with President Rodrigo Duterte's campaign against illegal drugs.

In a petition for mandamus filed on September 22, lawyers Mary Jane Real, Maria Lulu Reyes and Joan Dymphna Saniel and Anna May Baquirin called on the SC to order Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Chito Gascon to do the following:

• investigate all cases of extrajudicial killings or arbitrary detentions, whether allegedly committed by the State or otherwise, and whether or not linked to the government's war on illegal drugs
• require CHR, PNP and the Department of Justice to adopt effective and adequate measures to prevent violations of the right to life by law enforcement agents in the course of the government's drug war
• direct CHR, PNP and DOJ to submit periodic reports to the SC and to make the same public detailing the number of extrajudicial killings or arbitrary executions reported or committed across the country and the alleged circumstances, actions taken to probe the killings and to prosecute the perpetrators, progress of the action taken until cases have been filed in court, and nature of measures adopted to prevent further violations of the right to life and the progress of their implementation

"For each day no such investigations and prosecutions are done, hundreds of people could die. Precisely due to the lack of proper investigations as well as underreporting of cases, it has been difficult to determine the actual number of deaths, including those allegedly committed by the police during anti-drug operations," the petition stated.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has put up the #RealNumbersPH, where the statistics of the drug war are periodically released.

Based on #RealNumbersPH, a total of 3,811 drug suspects have been killed in 70,854 operations from July 1, 2016 to Aug. 29, 2017.

Data on the supposed vigilante killings of drug personalities, however, are not included in the statistics.

Last March, the PNP said that it had recorded a total of 6,011 "homicide" cases or deaths under investigation around the country from July 1, 2016 to Mar. 24, 2017.

Of the said number, 1,398 have been confirmed to be drug-related and 828 were not. The remaining 3,785 cases were under investigation.

The PNP has yet to release an updated figure.

The lawyers added in their petition: “Public interest would be served by compelling prompt, thorough, impartial, independent, and transparent official inquiry into the trail of deaths, reportedly related to the government’s anti-illegal drug operations. Respondents must be called upon to perform their duties of conducting investigations and prosecuting the perpetrators of killings, if warranted.”

The petitioners said the protection of the right to life "is a supreme duty all persons are held to task."

Duterte has bristled at criticisms of his anti-illegal drugs policy in which thousands have been killed since he took power on June 30 last year.

His outbursts were aimed at the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, the CHR, human rights groups and other international institutions that disagree with his heavy handed approach to curb the drug menace.

The President's allies in the House of Representatives even at one point slashed the CHR budget for 2018 to P1,000 before deciding to come up with an allocation of P508 million, which is still lower than its proposed P623.38-million budget. —ALG, GMA News