Napolcom also probing killings under Duterte
The National Police Commission (Napolcom) said on Wednesday that it is conducting a “targeted investigation” of the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that happened under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
During a briefing led by the House committee on public order and safety, Napolcom Vice Chair Rafael Calinisan told Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno that while they have not made this public yet, “we are currently doing our homework.”
Calinisan, however, declined to reveal more details about what appears to be the first investigation to be conducted by the Napolcom into the previous administration’s war on drugs.
Calinisan made the admission after Diokno asked him why the Philippine National Police, which is under the Napolcom, continues to refuse to provide the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) with documents on drug war-related killings under Duterte.
The CHR is currently investigating around 4,000 EJK cases out of the estimated 12,000 to 30,000 deaths arising from the crackdown on drugs between 2016 and 2022.
Confidential information
During the CHR budget hearing on Tuesday, Human Rights Chair Richard Palpal-latoc lamented that the majority of police stations had refused to comply with its requests for data, with police officials arguing that their investigations were considered confidential under Executive Order No. 2, or the Freedom of Information Act issued by Duterte.
But Diokno clarified that the same policy states that an agency can only refuse to provide documents if this will interfere with law enforcement proceedings.
As for Napolcom, Calinisan clarified that in their previous discussions with then PNP chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III, it was agreed that “the direction right now is to provide access to investigative bodies because that should be the course of things.”
“Hopefully with the new PNP chief (Gen. Richard Nartatez) and with the Napolcom which is currently investigating EJKs, we will get somewhere,” he said.
DOJ task force
In previous years, it was the Department of Justice (DOJ) that spearheaded the only state-led investigation into the drug war following international outrage over the mounting deaths under the previous administration.
In November last year, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla created a task force tasked with looking into the EJK cases, conducting case buildup and filing complaints against perpetrators and those involved in the killings.
Rights groups, however, say the DOJ investigation has not led to the actual filing of cases and the prosecution of suspects.
So far, there have only been two cases in which law enforcers were convicted for their involvement in drug war killings. One was the 2017 case of teenagers Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman for which a dismissed Caloocan City police officer was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The other was the high-profile murder of Kian delos Santos, also in 2017, for which three police officers from the same city were found guilty and each handed a prison sentence of up to 40 years.
Duterte himself is currently detained in The Hague to face trial over charges of murder as a crime against humanity over the EJK cases during his drug war.
