The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) of the Philippines has started to investigate the death of 3-year-old Myka Ulpina, who was shot during an anti-drug operation in Rodriguez, Rizal on Saturday.
“As there are disputes in the claims of both sides on what transpired that unfaithful day, the Commission is monitoring the case and already dispatched a team to investigate. We ask the government to expedite the investigation on the matter and allow the rule of law to prevail,” CHR Spokesperson, Atty. Jacqueline Ann De Guia said in a statement published on Facebook yesterday.
Myka died on Sunday, a day after sustaining gunshot wounds during a buy-bust operation in their home that targeted her father Renato Dolofrina. The police said that Dolofrina allegedly took his daughter hostage and used her as a “human shield” as he fought back the authorities who tried to arrest him.
However, Myka’s mother denied this and said that her daughter died due to a stray bullet because she did not leave her father’s side when the cops barged into their house.
The CHR condemned Myka’s death in their statement and said that children who are killed in the drug war are not just collateral damage but are victims.
“Their hopes and dreams fall short once [a] bullet enter[s] their bodies,” the statement reads.
Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa caused public outrage yesterday when he downplayed the girl’s death. During his first press conference in the Senate, the former police chief admitted that anti-drug operations sometimes have “collateral damage,” saying that “sh*t happens during operations.”
In another statement also published yesterday, the CHR said that while collateral damage is unavoidable, it is still important to investigate these cases so that the right people can be held accountable.
The cops involved in the drug raid where Myka was killed have been relieved from their posts and the police are now investigating what happened.
But police investigations on drug war deaths have come into question before. On Monday, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) also condemned Myka’s death and said that police accounts of drug raids are unreliable.
“Deceit has become the hallmark of this brutal campaign,” the HRW said.
According to the latest police data, 6,600 people linked to the drug trade have been killed between July 2016, when Duterte took office, and May 2o19. However, the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights said as far back as December that the death toll could actually be as high as 27,000.
The police continue to defend these killings by saying that the drug suspects resisted arrest but several cases have proven that this was not always true.
In its first statement yesterday, the CHR said that they too want to end the illegal drug trade but believe that the end does not justify the means.
“[T]he success of the government’s campaign to end illegal drugs should not merit on the number of drug suspects killed, but rather to the multitude of lives changed.”
