Chiz eyes Senate probe of Amnesty report, backs ‘secret witnesses’

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero is eyeing a Senate probe of an Amnesty International report on policemen supposedly receiving payment for vigilante-style killings of drug personalities. 

Escudero said he will file a resolution seeking for an inquiry on the recently released AI report, which criticized President Duterte’s war on drugs. 

“Marapat at dapat na alamin. Dapat nating makita kung may basehan,” he said. 

On the other hand, Escudero also said the Senate inquiry can be a chance for the Philippine National Police to defend itself. “Ito ay pagkakataon na rin para mapabulaanan kung hindi totoo,” he said. 

Acknowledging the sensitivity of the matter, Escudero said the Senate has always had executive or closed-door sessions. “Kung ganyang ka-sensitibo, nakahanada naman ang Senado na tumanggap ng sikretong testigo,” he said. 

The Amnesty International report said police prosecuting the war on drugs in the Philippines have behaved like the criminal underworld they are supposed to be suppressing, taking payments for killings and delivering bodies to funeral homes.

Read: Amnesty warns of crimes against humanity in Philippines

Amnesty International’s report said the wave of drugs-related killings since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in mid-2016 appeared to be “systematic, planned and organized” by authorities and could constitute crimes against humanity.

The Presidential Communications Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Amnesty’s findings.

In a series of reports last year, Reuters showed that the police had a 97 percent kill rate in their drug operations, the strongest proof yet that police were summarily shooting drug suspects. 

The Reuters reports also found that low-level officials in poor neighborhoods helped police assemble “watch lists” of alleged drug users and pushers that were effectively hit lists, with many of the people named ending up dead.

Duterte used exaggerated and flawed data, including the number of drug users in the Philippines, to justify his anti-narcotics crackdown, according to a Reuters investigation.

The release of Amnesty’s investigation, which was based on 59 killings in 20 cities and towns, comes amid uncertainty over the crackdown after the government suspended all anti-drug operations by police on Monday due to rampant corruption. The Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has now been given the lead role in the campaign.

Duterte made the decision after a security meeting on Sunday triggered by the kidnap and killing of a South Korean businessmen by drugs squad police. He said the incident, which took place at the national police headquarters, had embarrassed the country and tarnished the image of the police.

Amnesty said the vast majority of the killings it investigated “appear to have been extra-judicial killings – unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by government order or with its complicity or acquiescence”.

“The Duterte administration’s relentless pressure on the police to deliver results in anti-drug operations has helped encourage these abusive practices,” the report said. With Reuters

This story first appeared on ABS-CBN News Online and is republished with permission.



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