MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) said Friday it is ready to face any investigation on “falsified” evidence it purportedly used in its spot reports of anti-illegal drug operations as called out in a recently-released United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said in a radio interview that they do not condone such illegal practice.
“Bukas ang PNP kung sakali man magkaroon ng imbestigasyon at tukuyin ang specific details na ito. Handa ang PNP na humarap sa anumang imbestigasyon at kapag mapatunayan ng nagkasala sa hanay hindi natin ito kukunsintihin,” Banac said over DZBB.
(PNP is open if ever there is an investigation to point out these specific details. PNP is ready to face the investigation and if proven that there is any wrongdoing among our ranks, we will not condone it.)
While he said he respects the UNHRC document, Banac said the UN body should also be “balanced” with its report as more than 100 police officers were also killed in the country’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs.
“‘Di nabanggit sa UN report na mahigit 100 din ang patay na pulis natin dahil sa war on drugs. Karamihan dito base na rin sa reports natin sa mga kasamahan sa media na actually nanlaban ang mga suspects,” he said.
(The UN report did not mention that more than 100 policemen were also killed in the war on drugs. Most of these are also based on the reports of the media that suspects actually fought back law enforcers.)
“Hindi tayo nagmamalinis, hindi man perpekto ang organization. Mas maganda sana ay balanse rin ang report ng UNHRC,” he added.
(Not that we’re saying we’re clean but the organization is not perfect. It would have been better if the UNHRC report is balanced.)
The international human rights body said it studied 25 police operations between August 2016 to June 2017 and found that spot reports stated that law enforcers repeatedly recovered guns bearing the same serial numbers from different victims in different locations.
On Thursday, the UNHRC released its report that found found “near impunity” in the Philippine government’s handling of drug war killings.
It cited official figures showing that since President Rodrigo Duterte launched his drug war in 2016 at least 8,663 have been killed.
The report also flagged alleged “falsified” evidence used in post-operational spot reports.
UNHRC said that its analysis found that police “repeatedly recovered guns bearing the same serial numbers from different victims in different locations.”
It likewise said of a “pattern” that “suggests planting of evidence by police officers,” which “casts doubt on the self-defense narrative, implying that the victims were likely unarmed at the time of killing.”