Senate’s stand

In what can be considered a show of conscience, 14 of the 17-member Senate majority bloc signed a resolution condemning the spate of killings in the operations by the police against illegal drugs and directing the appropriate Senate committee to conduct a probe into the anti-drug operation of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

The 14 who signed the resolution after they held a caucus last Sunday were Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Ralph Recto, Grace Poe, Panfilo Lacson, Vicente Sotto III, Gregorio Honasan, Richard Gordon, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sonny Angara, Loren Legarda, Joel Villanueva, Sherwin Gatchalian, Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Two more majority bloc members, Nancy Binay and Francis Escudero, have signified their intention to sign the resolution. The stance of Sen. Manny Pacquiao is still not known.

It is a no-brainer, of course, what the stand of the Senate minority is on the matter. The minority bloc is composed of Sens. Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV and the detained Leila de Lima. They have long been critical of the manner the Duterte administration is conducting the war on drugs and are therefore expected to go with the majority bloc. But in a way, the majority has actually taken the initiative away from them on this issue.

The probe may be handled by the committee headed by Lacson, the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs. This would be the Lacson committee’s third go at the issue because it also looked into, grudgingly I would say, alleged extra-judicial killings (EJKs) that included the time when President Rodrigo Duterte was Davao City mayor and the killing of Albuera mayor Rolando Espinosa. With the support he is getting from his colleagues, I reckon Lacson wouldn’t be in a cover-up mode like Gordon was when he inherited a probe called by de Lima.

Among the killings that would be investigated will surely be that of Kian Loyd delos Santos, who was among those who died in the police’s “one time, big time” operation in Caloocan City. The incident brought attention to the other “one time, big time” killings in Bulacan (32 killed), Manila (25 killed) and the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela) area, with 17 killed including delos Santos. All those deaths in a span of only a few days.

I think it’s good that the senators and many other groups are reacting to those killings, especially that of Kian, because it may have stopped their spread to other police commands. In a way, I doff my hat to the police leadership here because it has been conducting the anti-drug war generally on the level. Some units have conducted their own versions of the “one time, big time” operation here and we have yet to hear of police abuses in their conduct.

It would be good to find out how the Senate will conduct the investigation this time. On Kian’s death, the police are coming out with their own version of who the minor supposedly was by presenting “witnesses” linking him and his relatives to the illegal drug trade. I would like to hear whether the allegations are merely made up or are part of efforts to demonize him to justify his killing.