Philippine police falsify evidence to justify killings

MANILA: Police in the Philippines falsify evidence to justify extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report published on Thursday.

“Our investigations into the Philippine ‘drug war’ found that police routinely kill drug suspects in cold blood and then cover up their crime by planting drugs and guns at the scene,” Peter Bouckaert, the rights group’s emergencies director, said

More than 7,000 people have been killed since Duterte came to office in June and launched his anti-drugs campaign, according to HRW.

The rights group accused the president of inciting a killing campaign that could amount to crimes against humanity and urged the United Nations to set up an investigation to determine accountability.

“When you kill criminals, it is not a crime against humanity. The criminals have no humanity,” Duterte said in reaction to the report.

National police spokesman Dionardo Carlos said HRW should share its information with the police so cops who committed wrongdoing can be charged in court.

Thursday’s report, titled “Licence to Kill,” also alleged that masked gunman who took part in the killings appeared to be working closely with police, contradicting government claims that the majority were carried out by vigilantes and rival drug gangs.

HRW said much of its report was based on interviews with 28 family members of victims and witnesses to police killings in the Metro Manila area.

Twenty-four incidents, resulting in 32 deaths, which took place between October 2016 and January 2017 and involving police officers were examined.

Though the anti-drugs campaign was meant to target “drug lords” and dealers, the victims in all of the cases investigated were poor and many were suspected users rather than dealers, HRW said.