Duterte’s claim about EJK investigation is ‘self-serving, unsubstantiated’ – Human Rights Watch

Human rights defenders have been denouncing President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, in which many police operations ended in scenes like this. (File photo by RAFFY LERMA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines – Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based international group, is not buying into President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement that he once ordered a “discreet” investigation into extrajudicial executions (EJK) attributed to its administration.

“President Duterte’s claim that thousands of extrajudicial executions since 2016 are the result of rivalry between drug syndicates is misleading, selfish and absolutely baseless,” said Phil Robertson, HRW Asia Deputy Director, in a statement released. on Tuesday.

“The ‘hearing’ he claimed to hold to reach this implausible conclusion was never disclosed to the public, raising questions about whether it ever happened,” he added.

Robertson pointed out that if Duterte really had serious doubts about his drug war operations, he might have called for a more credible investigation, not something hidden from public view.

“Instead, it ensured that experienced international investigators, such as the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Agnes Callamard, were not allowed to set foot in the Philippines,” Robertson said.

Duterte, during his prerecorded speech on the COVID-19 situation that aired Monday night, revealed that he had ordered an investigation into the EJKs because he also had concerns about it.

He said that the information that reached him blamed the murders on the drug trafficking syndicates at war that were trying to gain control of a specific territory.

Some cases, Duterte said, involved failed drug deals between dealers and users, with a dispute over drug money resulting in murders.

Duterte said the police officers were not involved, although he also admitted the possibility that some of them may have been involved in a drug recycling scheme, under which substances seized during anti-drug operations were again sold on the street.

“Honestly, I had my doubts too,” Duterte said, speaking in part in Filipino, before members of his cabinet. “There was a time when I had a low-key hearing. The information that came to me was that sometimes there is a rivalry of the lawn, its territory, as to who controls it, ”Duterte told members of his cabinet.

Second, someone got away with the money. And third, his [drugs] they were robbed at street level. That is what we do not know. They said it was the police [who did it]. But, you know, if I was a cop, I’d do my best. Why would you get from the street level ones, or what they call garbage collectors? [basurero]”He added.

But for HRW, Duterte’s claim was merely an excuse, false stories that would divert attention from allegations that police officers were involved in EJK.

The president became a controversial figure after his election in 2016, as he waged a vast and bloody campaign against illegal drugs, which was marred by accusations that state forces were involved in the EJK.

Of all the EJK suspects, only three officers were convicted of murder, and these were the Caloocan cops involved in the killing of teeanger Kian de los Santos.

“No one should forget that the murders of the ‘war on drugs’ immediately after Duterte was elected president in 2016. Since then, thousands have died and, with the exception of the case of Kian de los Santos, there has been no prosecution successful of neither of the two policemen. officers or mysterious civilian killers, ”Robertson said.

“Human Rights Watch and other groups credibly established that the police or other local authorities perpetrated most of the killings. In many of these incidents, the police routinely fabricate evidence, placing drugs and weapons on suspects killed at the scene of the alleged crime, to justify their claim that the suspects had defended themselves, “he added.

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