Bato denies absence of police reports in drug war deaths

Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa on Thursday slammed Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin "Boying" Remulla for saying that there were no police reports in alleged wrongful death situations during the war on drugs.

Dela Rosa, who served as chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the Duterte administration and was the chief implementer of the war on drugs, denied the allegation during the continuation of the Senate committee on foreign relations hearing into the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Diretsahang sagutin ko ‘yan—that’s a blatant lie, ‘yung sinabi ni Secretary Remulla. Talagang kasinungalingan ‘yan,” the senator said.

(Let me answer that directly—what Secretary Remulla said is a blatant lie. That's really a lie.)

“Hindi po totoo ‘yun na walang record. Ano natutulog ang pulis natin? Hindi nire-record? Hindi bina-blotter ang mga crime incidents na ‘yan? Hindi totoo ‘yan,” he added.

(It's not true that there are no records. Do you think our police were just sleeping, not recording, not putting those crime incidents on the blotter? That's not true.)

Dela Rosa was reacting to a statement of Remulla during the first hearing on March 20, that investigation showed that there were no police reports of those who died during the drug war.

The Justice secretary said forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun was also consulted on the matter, revealing discrepancies in the death certificates of the victims.

“When she investigated the wrongful death situation, the death certificate indicated cardiac arrest as the cause of death. But in the autopsy, there were bullet holes in the head,” Remulla said.

“When we looked at the records of the wrongful death situations, there were really no police reports. Maybe 95% had no police reports,” he added.

Dela Rosa, in return, explained that when he was the PNP chief, he ensured that the police force had documents that could be used in their defense should the drug war be investigated.

“Siguraduhin ninyo na every death na related sa war on drugs, meron tayong case folder niyan. Naka-file ‘yan lahat do’n, starting from the spot report to the progress reports, development reports, hanggang doon sa pag-file ng kaso sa DOJ. Meron tayo niyan,” he said.

(I told the police to make sure that every death related to the war on drugs has a case folder. It's all filed there, starting from the spot report, to the progress reports, to development reports, to when the case was filed with the DOJ. We have all of that.)

Duterte is currently in detention at the International Criminal Court (ICC) prison at The Hague, Netherlands to face charges of crimes against humanity for his deadly war on drugs.

The deaths reached around 6,000 based on police records, but human rights groups contend that the deaths were as much as 30,000, including vigilante killings.—AOL, GMA Integrated News