Ending conspiracy of silence
Among the controversial statements issued by Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano was his advancement of the notion that former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war was a “pro-life campaign dahil pumapatay ang drugs (because drugs kill).”
This skewed logic, coming from the third-highest official of the land and a lawyer, reflects how Duterte supporters continue to impose the distorted narrative justifying the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of thousands of alleged drug suspects, while claiming that his violent language exhorting police to kill them was just hyperbole.
Even as Duterte sits in a detention center in The Hague, the Netherlands, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC), the extent of the mass killings seems hard to grasp for a nation desensitized by fear or helplessness.
Will a truth commission help the country come to terms with this dark chapter? A Church-led EJK Truth Commission launched last week aims to document the killings, identify the victims, help their families find closure, and recommend prosecution of the law enforcers responsible for the killings.
Faceless and nameless
The commission, independent of the government, was launched by civil society with Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David as adviser and prominent personalities as members: former ICC judge Raul Pangalangan (chair), forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun, human rights journalist Carlos Conde, Dr. Al Fuertes, and Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario.
“This is an opportunity for a catharsis … so we can recover our dignity as a country,” David said, describing the commission as long overdue. He said the commission will focus on documenting the victims’ stories and helping their families and even repentant law enforcers find closure.
“Ultimately, what we aspire for is healing not only for the victims but also for our institutions,” he said.
The cardinal knows whereof he speaks. A leading voice against the EJKs, which even earned him death threats from then-President Duterte, David was bishop of the diocese of Caloocan, which he described as the “ground zero” of EJKs because of the huge number of alleged drug suspects killed in his jurisdiction.
They included 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, who was killed by the Caloocan police and became the face of the EJK victims. But thousands of other EJK victims have remained faceless and nameless.
If the commission succeeds in even one thing—in establishing how many people were actually killed in the drug war—it would have done the country a big service.
Not mere statistics
Conde, a former Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch, correctly pointed out the need to establish this basic information: “One of the challenges that we’re facing here is that nobody really knows exactly how many have died. We have different figures. They [human rights watchdogs] say 30,000, the UN [United Nations] says 18,000, and the government says 6,000-7,000.”
Ascertaining this matters because the EJK victims must not become mere statistics but actual lives unnecessarily cut short and families needlessly shattered.
David said the truth about the EJKs must be established and protected “not only as a matter of public record, but as a matter of dignity for the families who have carried these stories for years.”
But why is there a need for a truth commission when Duterte and his other co-perpetrators are already facing charges at the ICC for the killings? Pangalangan pointed out that for the ICC, acquittal or conviction of the accused and reparations for the victims would be the end of the process. “For us, however, our goal is to establish the truth hand in hand with the victims,” said Pangalangan, a former University of the Philippines College of Law dean and former publisher of this paper.
Evidence gathered through the commission’s “Public Truth Hearings” and investigations could help prosecute those directly involved in the drug war’s implementation but who have not yet been held accountable.
A memorial
As the commission is nongovernment, this would require cooperation from the Philippine National Police. Its chief, PGen. Jose Melencio Nartatez, has given assurances that the PNP will “support the search for truth” and will cooperate with the commission “within the bounds of legal protocols.”
Given how the PNP became Duterte’s killing machine, and yet only a handful of cops have so far been charged and convicted for the EJKs, flushing out these killers-in-uniform and holding them accountable would be a concrete measure of institutional remorse and cleansing.
With the help of the Truth Commission, may both Filipino citizens and institutions acknowledge the gravity of the drug war killings and unite in calling for justice for the victims. When the commission’s work is done, why not establish a memorial with the victims’ names etched in stone to jar our collective conscience?
As Pangalangan aptly said: “These things happened because everybody looked the other way … It is almost a conspiracy of silence.” May Filipinos no longer be silent or complicit.
