By DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Lawyers handling the cases of families of drug war victims said that the Philippine government made it difficult for victims to file complaints, deliberately denying documents needed to investigate, and prosecute cases of extrajudicial killings during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The victims, families, have to rely on their own resources. They did not receive any sort of help from the government, especially from the police,” said Ephraim Cortez, president of National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).
Cortez said that the documents from the police are significantly harder to retrieve, particularly the police investigation reports, autopsy reports, and other documentary evidence. There are also cases when the victims’ cause of death were fabricated, as in the case of the police citing natural causes even if gunshots were the actual cause of death.
Duterte attended the Senate hearing on the drug war on October 28. Under oath, he made pronouncements related to ordering and justifying the killings, as well as what happened in Davao City back when he was still mayor.
“What I said was this, let’s be straightforward: encourage the criminals to fight, encourage them to draw their guns. That’s my instruction—encourage them to resist; if they resist, kill them to put an end to the problems in my city,” Duterte said in Filipino. “Do not question my policies because I offer no apologies, no excuses.”
In the same hearing, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said that the Philippine National Police (PNP) did not cooperate in endorsing documents related to the drug war victims.
The restriction to endorsing necessary documents was reportedly due to Executive Order No. 2 or the Freedom of Information (FOI) program signed by Duterte in July 2016. It allows the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the President (OP) to list certain exceptions.
“We are asking for investigation reports and evidence available to the police. There are different reasons. One reason is EO 2, while the other said that there were verbal directives prohibiting CHR, NGO workers, and human rights organizations [in providing information],” CHR Chairperson Richard Palpal-latoc said.
If the CHR finds it hard to access such information, even in coordination with the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office (HRAO) and the PNP Chief, Cortez said that the victims themselves are forced to look for other evidence just to continue the investigation.
“In all the cases handled by the NUPL, majority of them were dismissed. Only one has conviction so far,” Cortez said. “Worse, the prosecutor assigned to the case testified in defense of the police. This is the problem in the drug war. We are primarily investigating the police as enforcers but the prosecutors also have a hand in these cases.”
NOW: Families of drug war victims and human rights defenders hold a press conference today, to respond to the testimonies of former President Rodrigo Duterte in the recent Senate hearing. pic.twitter.com/6oGBV3cM3K
— Bulatlat (@bulatlat) October 30, 2024
The first case of drug war conviction handled by the NUPL was the conviction of four Caloocan City police officers on June 18 for the killing of father and son Luis and Gabriel Bonifacio in an anti-drug operation in 2016.
Cortez also pointed out how the DOJ prosecutors allegedly blocked efforts to exact accountability.
In the case of the Bonifacios, Cortez said the DOJ through Deputy City Prosecutor Darwin Cañete did not assist the private prosecutors and even testified in defense of the police.
“Some families were asked by the prosecutors to sign a waiver that they will not file a case, just to retrieve the cadaver of their family. This is not an isolated case in Caloocan. In short, the prosecutors of the DOJ were also involved in this,” Cortez said.
If these are the same prosecutors tasked to investigate the extrajudicial killings, Cortez said that it would create a problem in exacting accountability. “Then we have to consider that the ones who were investigating the extrajudicial killings [in the Senate] are Senator dela Rosa and Bong Go, and we saw how they intervened in the Senate.”
Dela Rosa was PNP chief when the drug war was implemented under the Duterte administration while Go was Special Assistant to the President who was recently linked to the rewards system that Garma exposed in the Quad Committee investigation.
Human rights group Rise Up for Life and Rights, known for supporting and assisting families of drug war victims, underscored that poverty hinders the families from filing individual legal cases. This is in response to dela Rosa’s statement during the Blue Ribbon Committee Hearing, blaming families for their refusal to “file complaints (with) the authorities.”
It was also exposed in the hearing that some families did not reach out to authorities because the drug suppliers allegedly came from the ranks of police officers themselves.
“In the documents and reproduction alone, they need an average of P6,000. If they want to pursue further, they will have to spend more even if the lawyering services are free. These people come from poor households,” Rubilyn Litao of Rise Up for Life and Rights said.
Former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said that the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the main forum of accountability. “The victims do not have confidence in our justice system. There are legal domestic remedies available but they were proven to be ineffective for most families. Some of our clients said: we are poor, justice is not in our favor.”
The Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the Philippines should cooperate with the ICC despite its withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court, since the exit does not affect criminal proceedings pertaining to acts that occurred when the country was still a state party.
“Consequently, liability for the alleged summary killings and other atrocities committed in the course of the war on drugs is not nullified or negated here. The Philippines remained covered and bound by the Rome Statute until March 17, 2019,” the SC said.
On March 27, 2023, the ICC’s Appeals Chamber rejected the Philippine government’s appeal to suspend the investigation on drug-related killings from 2011 to 2019. As of this writing, the ICC says it is “following developments” in response to the recent probes to Duterte’s drug war.
Human rights groups stressed that the number of extrajudicial killings during Duterte’s administration was 30,000, far from the 6,000 official government data. (RTS, JJE, DAA, RVO)
