Only 11 of 466 suspects, who allegedly resisted arrests and “fought back,” survived during the illegal drugs operations conducted by the police from 2016 to 2020 in the National Capital Region, Region III, and Region IV-A, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Nov. 2, the CHR – through Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel Gana – said the NCR, Region III and Region IV-A are the areas in the county where most of the drug war operations were conducted and where most of the deaths occurred.
The CHR said its complete analysis report on the documented incidents of killings and violence in connection with the government’s drug war operations has yet to be released to the public.
Commissioner Gana said that the 451 cases of killings attributed to “legitimate” police operations had 705 victims of which, the police claimed, 466 of them resisted arrest or those whom the police called as “nanlaban” or those who “fought back.”
“Despite police protocols prescribing necessary and reasonable force in subduing resistance by an aggressor, only two percent or 11 individuals survived the alleged 'nanlaban' incidents,” she pointed out.
She said that CHR’s report covers 579 incidents found in NCR, Region III, and Region IV-A, which are areas that have registered the highest numbers of killings allegedly linked to the government's anti-drug campaign.
“From the sample 579 cases, 870 were recorded as victims, at least 71 of whom are women, and at least 24 were minors. Four hundred fifty-one (451) incidents of killings were allegedly attributed to police operations; 104 were said to be committed by unidentified perpetrators; while 24 incidents have no sufficient information as to the circumstances,” Gana noted.
She said it was found in the records that the 87 sustained mostly multiple gunshot wounds on different parts of the body, usually the head, chest, trunk, and abdomen.
“Blunt force and injury and lacerations were also found on some of the victims,” she said.
Citing a Supreme Court (SC) decision on the plea of the self-defense of law enforcement (Ocampo v. People of the Philippines), Gana noted that the High Court ruled that “the location of a deceased aggressor's gunshot wounds may suggest an intent to kill and not just to defend oneself.”
Citing police investigation reports obtained by the CHR, Gana said 77 out of 90 reports on internal investigations contained recommendations that police operatives involved in the said incidents are “either to be awarded, rewarded, or recognized.”
“Some reports, while no mention of commendation, upheld legitimacy of operations and, in few reports, recommended that participating operatives be absolved from criminal or administrative liability,” Gana said.
She pointed out that the patterns of discrepancies based on eyewitness accounts during drug operations by law enforcers included: “the alleged operations might have not actually been conducted; the alleged 'nanlaban' victims could not have initiated a shootout; some victims were said to be already under police custody when they were killed; the allegedly unjustified violence was prevalent in the conduct of said operations; the planting of evidence was observed by witnesses in some incidents; and some victims killed might not have been the intended target of the operations.”
CHR said it is still willing to partner with the government in uncovering the truth behind these incidents of killings and other forms of violence allegedly linked to the government anti-drug campaign.
Gana said: “We continue to look forward to the realization of the commitment of the government, through the Department of Justice (DOJ) in June 2020 before the Human Rights Council, that CHR, in our capacity as an independent monitoring body, will be involved in the review panel of some 5,655 cases of anti-drug operations where deaths occurred, including those being handled by the Administrative Order No. 35 Inter-agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture, and Other Grave Violations to Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.”
“Speedy, impartial, and transparent investigations are crucial in delivering justice,” she stressed.
The CHR report included recommendations to the government to “adopt the United Nations Minnesota Protocol in investigating potentially unlawful deaths in a prompt, effective and thorough, independent, impartial, and transparent manner.”