MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) investigation into the so-called Davao death squad has hit a snag after a judge denied a police request for a search warrant for an area where it is believed victims of the group were buried.

“The CHR expects the judiciary to be facilitative within legal bounds rather than obstructionist... inaction makes them accessories to the culture of impunity,” said CHR Chair Leila de Lima in a statement yesterday.

De Lima said Judge Ridgway Tandili of Davao Regional Trial Court Branch 15 denied the request for a search warrant in an order dated July 7, citing lack of probable cause.

The warrant would have allowed the CHR-led multi-sector task force on the Davao death squad to dig near a cave by a dry creek in Barangay Maa where a human leg bone was unearthed.

The area is near an ipil-ipil plantation owned by a former policeman where human bones were discovered earlier. That area behind the Gold Cup Firing Range was covered by a search warrant issued by Manila RTC Judge Romulo Lopez.

“The fact that the initial search yielded positive results is an indication that the task force and the PNP-SITG (Philippine National Police-Special Investigation Task Group) team acted on good, solid info and that the ongoing search is not at all a fishing expedition,” De Lima said.