Oro police don’t kill innocent people

XTRA judicial killing (EJK) is a very hot topic since President Rodrigo Duterte sat down in his office. Critics flood against his drug war campaign especially after his pronouncement to “kill all the drugs personalities.”

Some were very vocal in accusing the government, even without evidence, that the state’s law enforcement agency is short-cutting the procedures of law and is following literally the directives of the president to kill drug pushers.

Before we embark on the issue of EJK, let us first try to understand the words “Extra Judicial Killing” (EJK). An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution) defines as “killings where the victim was a member of, or affiliated with an organization, to include political, environmental, labor, or similar causes; or an advocate of the said cause; or a media practitioner apparently mistaken or identified to be so,” according to Administrative Order 35 (Creating the InterAgency Committee on Extra Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right to Life, Liberty and Security of Person). In lay-mans term, the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process.

If we base on the definition of EJK according to the AO 35 one must fall under the personalities mentioned so that the case can be considered EJK. When the state forces, specifically the Philippine National Police, intentionally kills a certain person without the process of judicial process, then that can be considered EJK.

The question to be answered now is whether the PNP or other state forces carry out EJK.

I would like to relate the issue here in Cagayan de Oro City since I am presently assigned here. From the assumption of President Duterte on July 2016, the Oro cops had never killed a drug suspect during illegal drug operations. The reasons for these are that the city police valued the human lives and we adhered in our mandate to protect the human rights of every suspect because they are always considered innocent until proven beyond reasonable doubt by the court of law. All of our actions are guided with our police operational procedures.

But starting August this year, the record of having zero casualty during our anti illegal drugs operations was broken. In the month of August this year, COCPO had recorded three drug suspects killed and another two for the month of September with the total of five drugs suspects killed since the start of the drug war of this administration.

Based on this statistics, the critics of this administration here in the city and even in an adjacent provinces had related this issue to EJK due to bloody drug war of this administration.

As a spokesperson of COCPO, I can say that there is no EJK in the city if we base it on the two definitions. All of the drug suspects were killed during legitimate anti illegal drugs operations conducted by our different Drugs Unit and Teams. They were killed because they possessed eminent danger to the lives of our operatives by shooting using their illegally possessed firearms. Some of them even had in their possession hand grenades which poses more danger to more lives. Some of them even managed to shoot our personnel in the body, fortunately our personnel had bullet proof vests.

Some claimed that the Oro police had executed EJK but they failed to present evidence for it. Until now their allegation remained hearsay until proven that our office is involve in EJK. The Oro police don’t want to to kill anybody but it is also necessary to protect the lives of our personnel. In our war on drugs we hope to save the lives of the young generations including the old ones together with their family against the danger of illegal drugs.

Our police office is open for any investigation about this issue and as a matter of fact the Regional Internal Affairs Service (IAS) had already started their investigation with our personnel involved in operations which resulted to the killing of the drugs suspects.

COCPO would like to assures the public that we remain as the protector of the law abiding citizens and the enemy of the law breakers. We don’t want that our next generations will be destroyed by the drug menace, that is why we intensify our illegal drugs