IFUGAO Representative Teddy Brawner Baguilat urged his fellow lawmakers to show the Filipino people that it stands for the rule of law and the right of every human being to be deemed innocent until proven guilty.
In the wake of the killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, the latest victim of the war on drugs, Baguilat said it was incumbent upon the House of Representatives to undertake its own independent investigation into the killings, lest the Filipinos be led to believe these killings will just be left unsolved and the judicial processes flouted.
"Will the House of Representatives perform its duty to the people and investigate these killings? Or will it turn its back on the people, all for the sake of political expediency at the expense of doing what is right and just? The test has come," said Baguilat.
Baguilat has filed his third resolution seeking a full and swift investigation of the surge of extrajudicial killings or summary executions of suspected violators of laws on illegal drugs.
The resolution is based on the Constitutional provision that “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,” and that “no person will be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law.”
Baguilat, who champions the independent minority in the House of Representatives, cited since the inauguration of President Duterte, between 7,000 and 13,000 persons suspected of violating laws against illegal drugs have been killed by law enforcers or vigilantes under vague circumstances.
"The seemingly unchecked outbreak of extrajudicial killings executed by civil servants trusted by the people to enforce the law indicates a violation of the Constitution and represents a deterioration of the rule of law which, if left unrestrained, can lead to people taking the law into their own hands and direct the country towards lawlessness and anarchy," he said. (Roderick Osis)