PNP belies Amnesty report on cops being paid to kill in drug war
PNP spokersperson Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos. Photo by Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
The Philippine National Police took strong exception to the findings of the international human rights watchdog in its report claiming that the police take under-the-table cash or hire killers to execute drug suspects as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
“We take strong exception to opinions raised in the latest report of Amnesty International which claim, that police plant evidence, take under-the-table cash, fabricate reports, and paid killers on police payroll,” the PNP said in a statement on Wednesday.
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PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Dionardo Carlos said that these claims are “obviously not the norm, despite a higher number of police operations that have resulted to inevitable fatal encounters with criminal elements lately.”
Despite the rising number of deaths in the drug war, Carlos said the PNP has always respected human rights.
“The PNP has always observed and upheld respect for human rights as a fundamental principle in policing and is the institutional foundation of all training programs for police units and personnel,” he said.
“The police cannot help being typecast as alleged violators of human rights partly because of the basic nature of its law enforcement function that constantly places the police in cross swords engagement or armed contact with criminal elements,” he said.
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Carlos also said the PNP’s transparency in reporting crime statistics has made the organization “more prone to deeper scrutiny especially by foreign observers who have very little understanding of the peculiarities and dynamics of the crime and drug situation in the Philippines.”
He said “local and foreign observers” wrongfully referred to the 4,744 “deaths under investigation” as “extra-judicial killings,” apart from the 2,555 drug suspects killed in legitimate police operations.
Of the 4,744, the PNP spokesperson said 3,459 were determined to be non-drug related incidents 662 of which were motivated by personal grudge, 15 were related to property dispute, 16 were crimes of passion, 10 were “rido” or family feud, 11 were work-related and 2 were atrocities committed by threat groups. On the other hand, only 1,285 incidents had something to do with the victim’s association with drug activities.
“We have made significant breakthrough in the investigation of these murders with the arrest of 694 suspects and the identification of 467 others who are believed responsible in 1,212 reported deaths. Criminal charges have already been filed before the courts,” Carlos added. JE
