Extrajudicial Killing: Last Bullet Against Drugs

I.

Background/ Introductory Statement (Rationale)

Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common in Syria, Iraq, Egypt,
Central America, India, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Indonesia, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, several nations or regions in Africa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Jamaica, Kosovo, parts of South
America, allegedly Russia, Uzbekistan, parts of Thailand, Turkey, in the
Philippines, Tajikistan, Papua New Guinea, and by Israeli forces. One of the
most recent issues regarding extrajudicial killing has been the debate about
the legal and moral status of targeted killing by unmanned aerial vehicles by
the United States.

Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines are

illegal liquidations, unlawful or felonious killings. These are forms
of extrajudicial punishment, and include extrajudicial executions, summary
executions, arbitrary arrest and detentions, and failed prosecutions due to
political activities of leading political, trade union members, dissident and/or
social figures, left-wing political parties, non-governmental organizations,
political journalists, outspoken clergy, anti-mining activists, agricultural
reform activists, members of organizations that are allied or legal fronts of
the communist movement like "Bayan group" or suspected supporters of the
NPA and its political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

In 1995 during the Marcos regime, 10,000 Filipinos won a U.S. class-suit
against the Ferdinand Marcos estate. The charges were filed by victims or
their surviving relatives for torture, execution and disappearances. Human
rights groups placed the number of victims of extrajudicial killings under
martial law at 1500 and over 800 abductions; Karapatan (a local human
rights group's) records show 759 involuntarily disappeared (their bodies
never found). Military historian Alfred McCoy in his book "Closer than
Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy" and in his speech
"Dark Legacy" cites 3,257 extrajudicial killings, 35,000 torture victims, and
70,000 incarcerated during the Marcos years. The newspaper "Bulatlat"
places the number of victims of arbitrary arrest and detention at 120,000.

The New People's Army (NPA) groups known as "Sparrow Units" were active
in the mid-1980s, killing government officials, police personnel, military
members, and anyone else they targeted for elimination. They were also part
of an NPA operation called "Agaw Armas" (Filipino for "Stealing Weapons"),
where they raided government armories as well as stealing weapons from
slain military and police personnel. A low level civil war with
south Muslims, Al-Qaeda sympathizers and communist insurgents has led to
a general break down of law and order. The Philippines government has
promised to curb the killings, but is itself implicated in many of the killings.
Since 1975, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was deeply concerned
in politics. Because of the armed conflict, the military continued its campaign
versus the New Peoples Army of the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP). Since 1969 it aimed to establish a Marxist regime with
armed rebellion against the government. On top of all these chaos, left-wing
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were/are critical of the Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo administration. The members who associated with the CPP
and NPA had been targeted as victims in the spate of political killings. Human
Rights Watch investigated extrajudicial murders in the Philippines in
September 2007.
Because of the magnitude of Philippine killings and desaparecidos,
22nd Chief
Justice Reynato
Puno of
the Supreme
Court
of
the
Philippines called a National Consultative Summit on extrajudicial killings on
July 16 and 17, 2007 at the Manila Hotel. Invited representatives from the
branches of the government participated (including the Armed Forces of the
Philippines, the PNP, Commission on Human Rights (Philippines),
media, academe, civil society and other stakeholders).
On the other hand, the Malacaang-sponsored "Mindanao Peace and Security
Summit" (July 810, 2007 at Cagayan de Oro City) concentrated on the antiterror law, or the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, to make it more
acceptable to the public. At the July 16 summit, Reynato Puno stated that the
Commission on Human Rights reported the number of victims at 403 from
2001 to May 31, 2007, while Karapatan reported 863 deaths until 2007, and
more than 900 as of May, 2008, and most of them were members of left wing
groups. Karapatan further officially placed the number of victims of human
rights violations: forced evacuations or displacement at 7,442, by
indiscriminate firing with 5,459 victims, and food and economic blockade
with 3,042. The rights group Desparecidos officially reported as of May 15,
2008, 194 victims of enforced disappearances under the Arroyo
administration, with the latest abduction of National Democratic Front
political consultant for Cagayan Valley, activist Randy Felix Malayao, 39, a
volunteer worker.

Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL), Philippines, a lawyers

organization stated that since 2001, 26 lawyers and 10 judges were killed
due to their professions; 755 civilians had been killed extrajudicially, while
359 survived attacks, but 184 persons were still missing.
Bishop Deogracias Iiguez stated that on the CBCP/Catholic Church's count,
the number of victims of extrajudicial killings is 778, while survivors of
"political assassinations" reached 370; 203 "massacre" were victims, 186,
missing or involuntarily disappeared, 502, tortured, or illegally arrested.
Iiguez denounced the government's implementation of its Oplan Bantay
Laya I and II.
On March 11, 2008, the US Department of State reported that "arbitrary,
unlawful arrests and extrajudicial and political killings continued to be a
major problem in the Philippines in 2007. Washington stated that "many of
these killings went unsolved and unpunished despite intensified efforts of
the government to investigate and prosecute these cases.

In speeches made after his inauguration on June 30,2016, Mr. Rodrigo

Duterte urged citizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts. He said
he would order police to adopt a shoot-to-kill policy, and would offer them a
bounty for dead suspects. On July 2, the Communist Party of the
Philippines stated that it "reiterates its standing order for the NPA to carry
out operations to disarm and arrest the chieftains of the biggest drug
syndicates, as well as other criminal syndicates involved in human rights
violations and destruction of the environment" after its political wing Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan accepted Cabinet posts in the new government. On
July 3, the Philippine National Police said they had killed 30 alleged drug
dealers since Duterte was sworn in as president on June 30. They later stated
they had killed 103 suspects between May 10 and July 7.On August 26, the
official death total reached 2,000.
"In the Philippines which already ranks as the most dangerous country in
Asia for [human rights defenders] President Rodrigo Duterte normalized the
act of extrajudicial killing in his war on drugs, lowering the political cost of
murder and thus raising the risk to defenders whose work threatens powerful
interests," the Front Line Defenders said in its Annual Report on Human
Rights Defenders at Risk in 2016.
"By calling for the extrajudicial killing of those involved in the drug trade,
President Duterte has helped create an environment where murder is being

promoted as an acceptable method of dealing with certain problems," the

report read.
Globally, a total of 281 HRDs were killed in 25 countries in 2016, and 49% of
them were defenders of land, indigenous, and environmental rights.
The report noted that "in the vast majority of cases, killings were preceded
by warnings, death threats and intimidation which, when reported to police,
were routinely ignored."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte slammed foreign and local critics,
including news organizations and human rights groups, for tagging 1,756
deaths related to his war on drugs as extra-judicial killings. Since Mr. Duterte
won the elections by a large margin, police operations have killed more than
a thousand alleged addicts, street peddlers and a few mid-level lieutenants
of drug syndicates. Unidentified assailants have felled almost 600 others.
Another 133 bodies were found wrapped like mummies in plastic shrouds
bound by packaging tape.
All these, the President and his allies said that it should not be called extrajudicial killings. These, they insist, should be called deaths under
investigation.

Discussing the killings linked to the war on drugs, National Union of Peoples
Lawyers (NUPL) Secretary-General Edre Olalia notes that they represent
classic hornbook (textbook) extrajudicial, whether resolved or unresolved.
The essence is killing outside the legal/judicial process/framework, he
points out. The motive can be anything -- punishment, reprisal, vengeance or
whatever reason. The crucial factor is whether a person was killed without
being given due process, Olalia adds. Due process, Olalia notes, is the
opportunity to be heard and given a fair trial. The Philippine Constitution
states: No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due
process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the
laws. (Article III, Section 1)

Extrajudicial killings are not new in the Philippines. Historian Alfred McCoy
the author of several books on modern Philippine history calculates that

3,257 people were killed by the regime of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who
ruled from 1965 to 86, while around 70,000 were imprisoned. (Duterte has
openly expressed admiration for Marcos, and his decision to bury the former
dictator at the Heroes Cemetery in Manila led to the first public
protests since the former Davao mayor took office.)
Summary executions have not been unknown in the post-Marcos era either,
particularly in the insurgency-ridden south. But the numbers have been low
an Asia Foundation report says that 390 people were killed in the 10 years
to 2011 until now.
Extrajudicial killings are a legacy from that authoritarian period, says
Gascon, who was a member of the body processing reparations for the
Marcos regimes victims before he became head of the human-rights
commission last year. But what makes it a little more difficult is that in
previous administrations, postmartial law, it was not policy to support or
encourage this kind of practice.
Rightly fearing for their lives, Filipinos are surrendering in droves. More than
half a million people have turned themselves in to the authorities for drugrelated offenses, according to police data, since Duterte took office.
Although, as Joseph Franco, an expert on the Philippines at Singapores
Nanyang Technological University, tells TIME via email, Surrender is a very
loaded term.

SOURCES:
http://www.rappler.com/nation/157528-duterte-extrajudicial-killing-humanrights

http://news.abs-cbn.com/blogs/opinions/09/27/16/opinion-how-do-you-parseextrajudicial-killings
http://www.businessinsider.com/rodrigo-dutertes-drug-war-in-the-philippineshas-killed-2000-2016-8
http://time.com/4462352/rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-drugs-philippines-killing/