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Bato dela Rosa: We stand by our definition of ‘EJK’
Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa maintained on Monday that there has been no cases of extrajudicial killing (EJK) under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte so far, adding that they will stand by their definition of EJK.
"Eto naman kasing EJK sinabi ng aming spokesman na there is no EJK, eh totoo naman talaga kung basehan natin yung definition ng EJK. Mahirap naman doon, itong mga kritiko natin sa panahon nila sila gumawa ng definition ng EJK na yan, ngayon na hindi na sila sa power, iba na yung nakaupo ngayon gusto nila baguhin yung meaning ng EJK," Dela Rosa said at a press conference.
Dela Rosa said government critics just want to label killings under investigation as EJKs for propaganda purposes. He added that they are just following the definition of EJK as created by the previous administration.
"Klaro naman dun sinabi kaya kahit sabihin nila na propaganda ng PNP yung sabi na walang EJK hindi po kami nag-po-propaganda. Bakit ba kung ibalik ko sa kanila ang tanong, yung pag label ng killing noon as EJK hindi ba yun propaganda? That's also their propaganda para siraan yung gobyerno," Dela Rosa said.
"Bakit nila pilit nilalabel na EJK when andyan 'yan killing. Kapag sinasabi niyo na killing saan kayo nakakuha ng statistics yan, nanggagaling sa amin 'yan hindi namin tinatago, nirereport namin sa inyo, killing, killing, but my god hindi namin nilalabel 'yan na EJK dahil as per administrative order na ginawa ng previous administration hindi yan nagquaqualify as EJK," he said.
Last week, PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Dionardo Carlos said there are zero cases of EJKs under the Duterte administration. He corrected his earlier claim that last December's killing of Catanduanes-based journalist Larry Que is the only confirmed EJK since July 2016.
Meanwhile, the PNP chief said that a victim of EJK should be a member of cause-oriented groups or media. He also blamed critics of the government for allegedly "arousing the public sentiment" for labeling killings under investigation as EJKs.
"Yung victims ng EJK ay dapat miyembro ng cause-oriented groups or miyembro ng media. Eh bakit yung mga namamatay ba diyan member ba ng cause-oriented group ano, samahang mag-shashabu ng Pilipinas? Anong cause oriented group sila?" Dela Rosa said.
"So ano miyembro ba sila ng media, hindi naman sila myembro ng media kaya nga we stick to the accepted definition ng ginawa ng previous administration kaya we stand by our definition of EJK pero kapag sinabi mong killing walang problema, nandiyan naman talaga 'yan eh. Sa aming nanggagaling yan," he added.
"Kami nagrereport sa inyo, how many thousands 'yan, andyan killing and it is being investigated. Ang hindi lang nila matanggap is pinipilit nyo EJK? Why? Because these critics want to arouse the sentiment of the public to go against the government. It's very obvious," he further said.
