http://thediplomat.

com/2017/01/dutertes-war-on-drugs-in-the-philippines-by-the-
numbers/

Extrahttps://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/146642-confronting-extrajudicial-
killings-dutertejudicial killings as crime against humanity

By: Joel Ruiz Butuyan - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:09 AM August 15, 2016

A TOTAL of 3,257 extrajudicial killings (EJKs) were committed during the Marcos
dictatorship. In contrast, there were 805 drug-related fatalities from May 10 (when
Rodrigo Duterte emerged winner of the presidential election) to Aug. 12, per the Inquirer
count.

If the current rate continues, the total number of EJKs for the six years of the Duterte
administration will end up about 700 percent more than the killings committed during the
14 years of the Marcos dictatorship.

President Duterte is either ill-advised or terribly underestimating the risk that he can be
held liable at the International Criminal Court, given the circumstances of the killings.

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In 2011, the Philippines ratified the Rome Statute which established the International
Criminal Court. Under this treaty, every Filipino, including the President, can be tried by
this Court which has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity. The treaty provides that
when murder is “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against
any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack,” it becomes a crime against
humanity.

The possibility that the current EJKs will be considered by the International Criminal Court
as amounting to a crime against humanity is a liability risk that our President is
miscalculating.

Ruben Carranza, director of the New-York-based International Center for Transitional

Justice, points out that “[w]hen over 500 civilians have been killed by both police and
vigilantes with the clear goal of targeting them in a ‘war against drugs,’ with their impunity
explicitly guaranteed by the president, then the elements of EJKs as a ‘crime against
humanity of murder’ are already there—(a) widespread or systematic killings, (b) civilians
are targeted, and (c) the perpetrators know or intended their conduct to be part of a
widespread or systematic attack.”

On Aug. 11, Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque delivered a privilege speech in which
he said: “It is clear that the civilian population is being attacked—news reports all around
us overwhelmingly establish that hundreds of Filipinos have been killed either directly by
governmental forces or with their support or tolerance.”

Roque likewise said: “It is also clear that the President is aware that these acts are
ongoing. Even without proof of a directive on his part, he has, in many instances, spoken
about the use of violence against drug syndicates.”

Roque cited the decisions of international criminal tribunals which prosecuted political and
military officials for crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and the former
Yugoslavia. These tribunals declared that “it is not necessary to show that [the crimes
committed] were the result of the existence of a policy or plan” and that the plan “need not
be declared expressly or even stated clearly and precisely. It may be surmised from the
occurrence of a series of events.”

The party-list representative cautioned the President to be careful: “While it would be

imprudent for me to say with certainty that President Duterte has already committed a
crime against humanity, it would be a disservice to this entire nation if I did not warn him
to be careful. Neither the Rome Statute nor general international law prescribes a
minimum number of victims for an indictment. So long as the [International Criminal
Court] believes that the war on drugs is ‘widespread’ and ‘systematic,’ [it is] likely to
investigate.”

The President enjoys immunity under Philippine law, but he has no similar immunity for
crimes under the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction. Carranza says “the presidents
of Sudan and Kenya were charged” in the court even during their incumbency. And there
is no expiration of liability for ICC crimes, so he can be charged even long after he leaves
Malacañang.

ADVERTISEMENT

The determination of Mr. Duterte to cleanse the country of the drug menace and his
willingness to risk his “life, honor, and the presidency” to achieve this goal are
praiseworthy.

However, we are at that stage of our civilization where we have long abandoned the
ancient practice of relying on operatives to dispense justice through the smoking barrel of
their guns. We have advanced our civilization by relying on gun-wielding men to
apprehend criminals, but have separately assigned the task of listening to accusations of
guilt and protestations of innocence to men and women who mete out penalties.

It is true that our current justice system is notoriously imperfect and graft-prone. But we
do not improve our way of life by marching back to the Dark Ages where justice is made
synonymous with violence. We improve our defective justice system by fixing it, not by
abandoning it.

It is true that the proliferation of drugs is partly due to corrupt judges. But it is also true
that illegal drugs proliferate because of a corrupt police force and a corrupt prosecution
service, both of which are executive agencies within the President’s control to reform.

It is also true that before our children become drug dependents who clog police and court
dockets, there are the education, health, and social welfare departments which are
executive agencies within the President’s control to tap for instructive, reformative, and
curative solutions to the drug menace.

We want our President to succeed in his fight against illegal drugs. But in his haste and
zeal, he may end up accused of a crime more serious than the ones perpetrated by his
archenemies. The last thing our country needs is a President facing trial at the
International Criminal Court.
Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/96518/extrajudicial-killings-crime-
humanity#ixzz4s1gfNSCD
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Rodrigo Duterte took office as president of the Philippines on June 30, 2016. Duterte
campaigned on an explicit platform to “kill all of you who make the lives of Filipinos
miserable,” including criminal suspects, as part of his vow to “solve drugs, criminality,
and corruption in three to six months.” At his inauguration, he pledged that his
administration would “be sensitive to the state’s obligations to promote, and protect,
fulfill the human rights of our citizens … even as the rule of law shall at all times prevail.”
During the government’s campaign against illegal drugs, however, Duterte has publicly
praised the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug dealers and drug users.

Philippine human rights groups have linked the campaign and Duterte’s often-fiery
rhetoric to a surge of killings by police and unidentified gunmen since he took office,
with nearly 4,800 people killed at time of writing. Police say that individuals targeted by
police were killed only after they “resisted arrest and shot at police officers,” but have
provided no evidence to support the claim. The killings have highlighted the country’s
long-standing problem of impunity for abusive state security forces.

Other key issues confronting the Philippines this past year include the rights of
indigenous peoples, violations of reproductive health rights, child labor, and stigma and
discrimination related to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Extrajudicial Killings

The Philippines has seen an unprecedented level of killing by law enforcement since
Duterte took office. Police statistics show that from July 1 to November 3, 2016, police
killed an estimated 1,790 suspected “drug pushers and users.” That death toll
constitutes a nearly 20-fold jump over the 68 such police killings recorded between
January 1 and June 15, 2016. Police statistics attribute an additional 3,001 killings of
alleged drug dealers and drug users to unknown vigilantes from July 1 to September 4.
The police categorize those killings as “deaths under investigation,” but there is no
evidence that police are actively probing the circumstances in which they occurred.

In August, Philippine National Police Director-General Ronald Dela Rosa stated that he
did not “condone” extrajudicial killings. In September, Police Internal Affairs Service
sources said they were “overwhelmed” by the scale of police killings and could only
probe “a fraction” of the deaths.

Duterte has ignored calls for an official probe into these killings. Instead, he has said the
killings show the “success” of his anti-drug campaign and urged police to “seize the
momentum.” Key senior officials have endorsed this view. Duterte’s top judicial official,
Solicitor-General Jose Calida, defended the legality of the police killings and opined that
the number of such deaths was “not enough.”

Attacks on Indigenous Peoples

In March 2016, some 6,000 protesters, primarily indigenous peoples, farmers, and their
supporters from drought-stricken areas in North Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces
gathered in Kidapawan City in Mindanao to call for government food aid and other
assistance. The police response included shooting live ammunition into the crowd,
killing two people. At time of writing, neither the Senate nor police have released the
results of their respective investigations into the incident.

Reproductive Health Rights

In his July 25 State of the Nation Address, President Duterte pledged to “put into full
force and effect” the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law (the RH
Law). Such support is greatly needed because on January 8, 2016, the Philippine
Congress eliminated funding in the 2016 national budget for contraception guaranteed
under the RH Law, cutting vital support for lower-income individuals. Millions of Filipinos
rely on state-provided contraceptive services and supplies for protection from sexually
transmitted infections, and for safe birth-spacing and family planning. The United
Nations Population Fund has criticized the congressional action as a threat to “the basic
human right to health as well as the right to reproductive choices.”

Human Rights Watch has also documented policies implemented by local governments
designed to derail full enforcement of the RH Law. In Sorsogon City in the Bicol region,
Mayor Sally Lee issued an executive order in February 2015 that declared the city a
“pro-life city.” Although the order does not explicitly prohibit family planning services and
contraceptive supplies, health workers, and advocates said that the city government
gave oral guidelines to the city’s public clinics to cease the distribution of family planning
supplies and instead promote only “natural” family planning methods such as the
Catholic Church-approved “rhythm method.”

In Balanga City, the municipal government banned local public health officials and
clinics from procuring or distributing contraceptives. That interruption compelled low-
income people to either buy them from pharmacies or clandestinely from local
government-employed midwives at relatively high cost.

Children’s Rights

In November 2015, the Philippine government detained more than 140 children in
advance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila. The
arbitrary detentions were part of so-called clearing operations aimed at beautifying the
city ahead of the summit. Police detained the children under guard in government
facilities for the homeless and orphans and then released them without charge when the
summit concluded.
Child labor in small-scale gold mines remains a serious problem. Children work in
unstable 25-meter-deep pits, dive underwater to mine, and process gold with mercury.
Small steps taken by authorities to tackle child labor—such as vocational training for
former child miners in one mining town—have been undermined by continued lack of
regulation of the small-scale gold mining sector, and by the government's failure to
address child labor systematically.

HIV Epidemic

Although national prevalence is still low, the country has experienced a sharp rise in
new HIV infections in recent years. Prevalence among men who have sex with men
(MSM) has increased 10-fold since 2010. In 2015, the Department of Health reported
that at least 11 cities registered HIV prevalence rates among MSM of more than 5
percent, with one—Cebu City, the second largest city—recording a 15 percent
prevalence rate in 2015. That compares to a 0.2 percent HIV prevalence rate for the
Asia-Pacific region and a 4.7 percent HIV prevalence rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, which
has the most serious HIV epidemic in the world.

There has also been an increase in Cebu City in HIV prevalance among pregnant
women, and in newly recorded infections among people who inject drugs in Cebu City,
where the prevalence rate among such people has been recorded at between 40 and
50 percent. Many of these new infections among people who inject drugs are due to
sharing contaminated needles.

The growing HIV epidemic is driven by a legal and policy environment hostile to
evidence-based policies and interventions that could help prevent HIV transmission.
Such restrictions are found in national, provincial, and local government policies, and
are compounded by the resistance of the Catholic Church to sexual health education
and condom use. Government policies create obstacles to condom access and HIV
testing, limit educational efforts on HIV prevention, and have ended harm reduction
programs in Cebu City that were previously distributing sterile injecting equipment to
people who inject drugs.

The Philippine government is fueling a rising human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

epidemic among men who have sex with men through policies that restrict interventions
proven to prevent transmission of the virus.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The House of Representatives began consideration of House Bill 267, the “Anti SOGI
(Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity) Discrimination Act” in June 2016. If approved, it
will criminalize discrimination in the employment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) individuals, and prohibit schools from refusing to register or
expelling students on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Senate has
introduced companion legislation, Senate Bill No. 935, otherwise known as the Anti-
Discrimination Bill (ADB), which had its first hearing in August.
House Bill 267 will also sensitize police and law enforcement officers on LGBT issues
and train them to attend to complaints. These initiatives are essential given that LGBT
rights advocacy groups have warned that hate crimes against LGBT people are on the
rise and that the Philippines has recorded the highest number of murders of
transgender individuals in Southeast Asia since 2008. The bill would also prohibit anti-
LGBT discrimination in access to health care.

Key International Actors

The United States remains a key source of military financial assistance, with the Obama
administration allotting US$120 million for 2016. Earlier military financing was
conditioned on improvements of the human rights situation in the Philippines, but this
conditionality has been lifted as part of the Obama administration’s so-called “Asia
pivot.” President Duterte has expressed dissatisfaction with US-Philippines relations,
even saying he is willing to expel US military personnel stationed in the Philippines, but
conceded that the country still needs US military help because of the South China Sea
dispute with China.

Other countries such as Canada and Australia, as well as the European Union, continue
to provide assistance to the Philippines for, among other things, capacity-building
programs to improve the human rights situation. Spain has given funds and resources
to the national Philippine Commission on Human Rights.

In November, the US State Department announced that it had suspended the sale of
26,000 military assault rifles to the Philippine National Police due to human rights
concerns raised by Duterte’s abusive “war on drugs.” The EU has transitioned its rule of
law program called EPJUST II, which involved training the police and other law
enforcement agencies, into GOJUST, which is tasked with instituting justice sector
reforms.

It has been 31 years since the People Power Revolution of 1986 that drove President
Ferdinand Marcos out of Malacañang to Hawaii where he died three years later. The
succeeding Cory Aquino administration set up the Presidential Commission on Good
Government (PCGG) with the task of recovering ill-gotten wealth that may have been
acquired by Marcos and his family and cronies.

The first PCGG chairman, Jovito Salonga, estimated its goal at $5 to $10 billion (which
would be P250 to P500 billion today). In the last three decades, the PCGG has been
able to recover some P170 billion in cash. It is now winding up its work and after it sells
assets already in its possession and other assets in pending court cases, its recovery
efforts are expected to reach over P200 billion.

It is against this background that President Duterte early this month said he had been
approached by the Marcoses and they were talking, he said, about returning some
assets, “including a few gold bars.” He said he listened to Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee
Marcos but he made no commitment. The Marcoses, he said, were not admitting that
the wealth being returned was stolen. But the governor said whatever was under
suspicion should be discussed, “and that I accepted,” the President said.

The report triggered a host of reactions from various officials. Some lawmakers and
victims of martial law said all of the wealth, not just some, must be returned. Former
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the government should be careful and the
surrender of assets should have no strings attached.

Governor Marcos said the family wants to put an end to decades of court cases. “Tiwala
kami sa Presidente, na siya ang makakapagapos ng deka-dekadang kaso at yung
pamilya naguusap pa. Pero nasa mga abugado,” she told reporters Thursday at a
House Committee on Good Government inquiry on the tobacco excise tax.

The latest word from President Duterte is that he would leave everything to the proper
authorities. He said Congress must authorize the government, through a legislative
measure, to decide whether to accept the offer to return a portion of the wealth. He
added that the Department of Justice also has to decide what to do about the cases
pending in many courts, including the Sandiganbayan.

It would appear from the exchange of statements and views from many sides that any
agreement is a long way off. Civil cases are ongoing; it may take years for them to be
decided. There is nothing sure about the amounts involved. There is dispute over
whether the amounts involved are ill-gotten.

There is need for closure on this long-standing issue. After 31 years, which included two
Aquino administrations, Governor Imee Marcos thought the time may have come for the
national government and the family to end the long drawn-out legal battles — and so
she talked to President Duterte. The problem is as big as ever but we now have this one
possible new way to resolve it that we can and should explore.

EJK ISSUE

How she wanted to hug her son again, housewife Lina de Guzman Gabriel sighed the
other day. Lina is the mother of 14-year-old fifth grader Reynaldo de Guzman, who
failed to return home to their shanty in Cainta after going out for a late night snack on
Aug. 17 with an older neighbor, Carl Angelo Arnaiz.

Relatives of Arnaiz had a shorter search for the 19-year-old former student of the
University of the Philippines: they found his body the next day in a funeral home in
Caloocan, where police had shot him dead allegedly because he resisted arrest for
armed robbery.

Lina de Guzman’s search took three weeks, but it allowed her to hold on to hope that
her son might still be alive. All hope, however, was dashed yesterday morning, as she
and her husband Edwardo Gabriel went to Gapan, Nueva Ecija for the grim task of
identifying the remains of their son.
The boy, looking thinner according to Lina, bore about 30 stab wounds. His body, clad
only in orange shorts, was found floating in a creek last Tuesday. His head was heavily
wrapped in packing tape and covered with a black shirt. Employees at the funeral parlor
where the body was taken posted photos of the boy on social media, hoping someone
would identify the victim.

People have not yet gotten over their outrage over the murders of Arnaiz and 17-year-
old Kian Loyd delos Santos. The brutal killing of a 14-year-old, who according to his
relatives and neighbors was a responsible boy who worked to help put food on the
table, can only stoke that outrage.

The only thing that can ease the outrage is confidence that justice will be rendered. Lina
de Guzman’s search, this time for justice, must not be in vain.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said that

while extrajudicial killings have been happening in every administration after
Martial Law, the scale of summary killings under President Rodrigo Duterte is
“unprecedented.”

CHR Chairperson Jose Luis Martin Gascon made the statement during the
agency’s budget briefing before the House committee on appropriations on
Wednesday, August 24.

Gascon cited the latest data from the Philippine National Police, which noted
that 756 drug personalities had so far been killed in police operations around
the country. Another 1,160 deaths outside police operations are under
investigation by the police.

“So, together, they’re close to 1,900 in the last 55 days since July 1. So the
magnitude or scale is unprecedented in that sense,” Gascon told
congressmen when asked what the CHR is doing to respond to the rising
number of drug-related deaths.

He clarified, however, that extrajudicial killings is not unique to the Duterte

presidency.

“I do have to stress, your honor, that from the outset of the establishment of
the Commission on Human Rights in 1987, since the transition to democracy
from authoritarian rule, there have always been cases of extrajudicial killings
in every single administration – from Cory Aquino to Fidel Ramos to Erap
Estrada, Gloria Arroyo, and Noynoy Aquino. All of these previous
administrations, there have been incidences of extrajudicial killings,” said
Gascon.

But he said the magnitude of apparent summary killings being reported as

Duterte wages a war on crimes and illegal drugs is something the CHR has
not experienced since its establishment.

“Perhaps during the Martial Law period, there might have been a significant
amount of cases, but this nature or magnitude, none,” said Gascon.

“So, as a result, we confess that we are, as the Commission on Human

Rights, unable to respond to every single case at this time. We are at less
than 20% now,” he said, adding that they are currently investigating 170
cases.

The rising number of drug-related killings has prompted the Senate committee
on justice and human rights to start a probe. (READ: Dela Rosa to Senate:
We are not butchers)

During the August 23 hearing, Gascon said Duterte may face charges of
crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court should the
Philippine government fail to address the issue.

Proposed CHR budget for 2017

Despite the CHR’s observations on the war on drugs, the Duterte

administration increased the agency’s proposed budget for 2017 to P496.136
million from P460.026 million in 2016.

In his presentation before congressmen, Gascon said the 2017 budget would
be used for the following:

 Improvement of investigation of strategies and approaches to

strengthen case buildup that would ensure successful prosecution
of human rights violation cases
 Strengthening of Protection Program for Human Rights Defenders
and Witnesses
 Piloting of the National Preventive Mechanism
 Deployment of Quick Reaction Teams across the regions
 Assistance for human rights violation victims
 Protection and assistance to women, children, and other
vulnerable sectors
 Projects covering the establishment of state-based non-judicial
remedial/grievance mechanism addressing violations of economic,
social, and cultural rights
 Development and roll out of human rights impact assessment tool
for business enterprises
 Enhancement of roles of national government agencies, local
government units, and civil society organizations in addressing the
human rights of internally displaced persons