Drug war killings ‘systematic’ — Amnesty Int’l

THE SPATE of killings related to the government’s bloody drug war “may constitute crimes against humanity” as it appeared to be “systematic, planned and organised by the authorities,” Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday.

The London-based advocacy group’s report came on the heels of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s order disbanding the Philippine National Police-Anti Illegal Drugs Group (PNP-AIDG) as he described the police force implementing his crime war as “corrupt to the core.”

Based on “strong evidence” gathered through 110 interviews and the documentation of 33 cases, Amnesty International concluded that many drug-related killings were summary executions that directly implicate cops and others by assassins paid by police officers.

Amnesty added that the majority of the killings it investigated “appear to have been extrajudicial 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 also said.

Departing from his previous high regard of the police, Mr. Duterte on Sunday night vowed to “cleanse” the PNP in the aftermath of the Oct. 18, 2016 kidnapmurder of Korean businessman Ick Joo Jee allegedly by rogue cops supposedly carrying out the war on drugs.

Yet, the President said he was extending the crackdown on drugs to the last day of his sixyear term, even as he ordered the dismantling of narcotics units of the police force.

Meanwhile, Amnesty’s top recommendation to Mr. Duterte was to “immediately order an end to all police operations involving unnecessary or excessive use of force.”

“The Philippine government needs to urgently adopt a different approach to drugs and criminality, one which promotes, respects and fulfills the human rights of all concerned,” the report read, “The impunity that currently reigns has facilitated killing on a massive scale, hitting the poorest and most marginalized segments of the population in particular.”

The PNP has placed the number of “killed drug personalities,” apart from “deaths under investigation,” at 2,500, but the fatality count in the media is almost thrice that figure.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella maintains that extrajudicial deaths are not state-sponsored, adding that reforms in the PNP “will rid the force of rogue cops.”

For his part, Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II said druglords and narco-traffickers are not part of humanity as he belied Amnesty’s report.

Mr. Aguirre said: “How can that be your... war is only against the drug lords, addicts or drug pushers. You consider them humanity? No.”