PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa on Monday said the state's definition of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) has not changed since it was adopted and signed by the previous administration.
He said PNP's definition of EJK was based on the operational guidelines of Administrative Order 35 adopted and signed on April 18, 2013.
Dela Rosa said that based on AO 35, the killings of cause-oriented group members and media personalities are the ones considered as extrajudicial killings, as he stressed that suspects killed during legitimate drug operations of the police are not considered victims of EJKs.
"Hindi yan (killings of drug suspects) qualified as extrajudicial killing," he said.
[The killing of drug suspects is not qualified as extra-judicial killings.]
Dela Rosa lamented that government critics use EJKs, instead of "killings" or "deaths under investigation" to discredit the administration's drug war.
"Ang hindi lang namin matanggap is pinipilit ninyo na extrajudicial killing. Why? Because these critics want to arouse the sentiment of the public to go against the government. It's very obvious. Sabihin nila na propaganda namin yan na walang EJK. Bakit ‘yung pag-label nila as ejk hindi ba propaganda?” he added.
[What we cannot accept is that they are insisting that it was extrajudicial killing. Why? Because these critics want to arouse the sentiment of the public to go against the government. It's very obvious. They will say that it was our propaganda to claim that there were no cases of EJK. Why, is labeling it as EJK not a propaganda?]
AO 35, signed by former Justice secretary Leila de Lima, defines EJKs as the killing of members or advocates of political, environmental, agrarian, labor, or similar causes, media practitioners and persons mistaken to be so.
PNP spokesperson Dionardo Carlos last week said that from July 1 to September 30, the December 2016 killing of Catanduanes-based journalist Larry Que is considered as the only incident of EJK in the country.
Carlos, however, retracted his statement noting that Que's killing is not yet a confirmed case of extrajudicial killing.
Carlos made the statement following the release of a Social Weather Stations survey which showed that 73 percent of Filipinos are worried that they or anyone they know could be a victim of EJK.
SWS data show that over 3,000 drug suspects were killed amid the administration's war on drugs.
Meanwhile, Internal Affairs Service (IAS) chief inspector general Alfegar Triambulo said they are auditing the performance of each police regional offices in investigating each cases in their area of responsibility.
He said they are looking at two things: effectiveness, which means that all cases in their areas of responsibility are being investigated; and efficiency, which is the movement of the investigation.
"So kami ngayon ay meron nang covering team sa lahat ng regional IAS namin na magconduct ng special inspection. I-o-audit namin yung kanilang performance so pag hindi effective o efficient ‘yung mga ating commanders ng ating mga kapulisan kami po ay magrerecommend na sila ay i-relieve for being ineffective and inefficient," he said.
[We have now covering teams in all regional IAS to conduct a special inspection. We will audit their performances and if they are not effective or efficient as commanders we will recommend their relief for being ineffective and inefficient.)
Triambulo said the conduct of audit aims to end alleged claims of extra-judicial killings allegedly being performed by legitimate policemen and also as part of the internal cleansing.
However, he clarified that as IAS, they are only concerned about the administrative investigation against the cops and not the other suspects as it will already fall under criminal investigation.
Triambulo said the IAS has since investigated at least 2,000 cases of cops having been killed criminal suspects.
He said they will submit to Dela Rosa their recommendation by November. (VoxPop Philippines)
