Don’t quibble over how EJK is defined. People worry, period.
DID Social Weather Stations (SWS) mislead respondents in framing the question in its recent survey that shows most Filipinos fear summary killings?
The survey said 78% of Filipinos are worried that they or someone they know would become victims of extrajudicial killings. The number of those who worry a lot about EJKs rose from 73% in June 2017.
PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde thinks SWS erred in the way it asked the question. SWS “missed the crucial point of determining the respondents’awareness of the definition of extrajudicial killings (EJKs).” Each person surveyed, Albayalde suggests, didn’t know what EJK meant, yet was asked how much he worried (“nangangamba”) about himself or someone he knew being summarily killed.
A.O. #35 definition
I don’t think the answer would’ve changed if they were given the definition of Administrative Order #35. The respondents would still be very much worried about the killings.
That order, by the way, limits the meaning of EJK only for the purpose of narrowing the functions of an inter-agency panel. That did not change the common folk’s understanding of summary killing. And that is pretty much how the Supreme Court defined EJK in a 2008 ruling: a killing “committed without due process of law, that is, without legal safeguards or proceedings.” Salvaging. “Juez de cochillo.” Rubout.
The respondents knew what EJK was. Albayalde used a legal technicality that may be useful if the dispute was over jurisdiction of the government interagency panel tasked to investigate. The SWS poll tried to determine what people thought about themselves or their friends being gunned down in their homes or on the streets on suspicion of drug trafficking.
Everyone worries
The respondents were asked about their anxiety or fear. The question assumed that people are worried over the killings. Who doesn’t worry about one’s own safety or that of someone he knows? If you are asked, “How much do you worry if you or someone you know is killed in an EJK,” you’ll answer very much, good heavens, do you even need to ask that?
Silly question. Not because the respondent doesn’t know how the government defines EJK for that inter-agency panel. But because everyone, except the suicidal or crazy, worries about being struck down on mere suspicion of a cr i m e.