EJK witnesses quit
The witnesses of more than half of the 20 docketed cases of extrajudicial killings handled by the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas reportedly backed out or refuse to cooperate with investigators out of fear.
In an interview with reporters yesterday, CHR-7 Investigation Division head Leo Villarino said that lack of testimonies is the biggest problem they have encountered in their continuing investigations.
“Personally, I am sad. There is very slow development in our cases especially on the earlier ones. There has been no new witness that has been brought to our office,” he said.
From the small number of eight, Villarino said there are now 20 cases of suspected extrajudicial killings that are docketed for investigation; 14 of which occurred in Cebu Province while the rest are in Negros Oriental.
He said the 20 cases are only among the 311 drugrelated killings that the commission has taken into account from their daily monitoring since May 22 until yesterday.
He said that although several people witnessed the killings, they refuse immediately if they are asked to testify because of fears that the perpetrators will target them next.
“We are having a hard time convincing them to cooperate. Mas naglabaw ilang kahadlok, ilang anxiety nga sila balikan,” said Villarino.
Without other testimonies, only the statements of family members or complainants are taken into consideration for now.
Villarino did not mince words when asked about how the investigations are going.
“If you are asking me of the development of the cases, practically there is no movement with our investigation as much as we would like to dispose these cases in accordance with the set of rules (provided by the directive from the head office),” said Villarino.
Earlier, the commission created a special body named Task Force EJK to investigate extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals.
Villarino said the probe team was given 60 days to complete the investigation; the 60-day limit starts from the date the case is docketed and this rule only covers incidents from May 22, 2016 onwards.
However, he said they are running out of time and still have not come up with strong cases.
“I will never recommend for filing of charges if our evidence is not that strong or sufficient... We do not want to waste the time of the prosecutor receiving our complaints then eventually they will just dismiss them because there is insufficient evidence,” Villarino said.
Villarino hopes that even if an investigation passes the 60-day period, the witnesses will still appear before their office.
“We cannot force them to cooperate. We are just hoping that they can find courage in themselves to cooperate in the investigation to give justice to those killed,” he said.