Free Legal Assistance Group chair Chel Diokno —Chel Diokno/Facebook
MANILA, Philippines—There is sufficient evidence to charge former President Rodrigo Duterte for the more than 6,000 deaths from his deadly drug war, but the authorities appear to be unwilling or unable to pursue the cases, human rights lawyers told the House representatives.
“We also wonder why the Department of Justice (DOJ) has not filed any cases when they have the records and they have the capacity to gather evidence to file the proper cases,” lawyer Chel Diokno told the House committee on human rights.
Diokno, chair of the Free Legal Assistance Group, said there has been “no accountability as far as the war on drugs is concerned” and the authorities cannot even agree on how many were actually killed.
READ: House drug war probe: Guevarra admits there were abuses
The Philippine National Police has officially acknowledged that more than 6,000 were killed in antidrug operations during the Duterte administration, but only the killings of teenagers Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman have so far been addressed.
Diokno said that even the Supreme Court, in the writ-of-amparo case of “Aileen Almora vs PNP chief Ronaldo dela Rosa,” noted that the Office of the President said in a 2017 year-end report that there were more than 20,000 drug-related deaths from July 2016 to November 2017.
Diokno said the resolution noted that since the killings were touted as accomplishments, it “may lead to an inference that these were state-sponsored killings.”
‘Very afraid’
Exasperated, Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., who chairs the panel, asked Diokno and his colleagues why they did not file charges when they themselves were officers of the court.
“Why do you have to wait for the DOJ to act when you could [file] a class suit on this against the former President?” Abante asked. “He’s no longer President. If he’s accountable, therefore, where’re the charges?”
Diokno pointed out, “The problem is those directly aggrieved, the relatives of the victims, are very afraid to file cases because they are going after a former president.”
Under the law, Diokno said he could not convince or decide for a client whether to file a case, “If I were to convince a client who does not want to file a case against the former President and something happens to that client, whose responsibility would that fall? Of course, that would lie on me because I was the one who convinced him.”
Diokno’s colleague, Maria Kristina Conti of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, conceded they had responsibilities as officers of the court.
“True, we are lawyers, and it is our responsibility to prosecute whatever human rights violations we see, to represent the victims, but before we can reach the court, there needs to be an investigation.”
She further said in Filipino, “We are not private investigators. And this is what the Duterte government was deficient on. Out of 6,252 killings, police operations, how many were investigated?”
“In the last hearing, we said there were only 52 (cases being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation). So the investigation is that slow and that small. We can’t move forward,” Conti pointed out.
Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel suggested that Sen. Ronald dela Rosa be invited to the hearing.
Abante said, “We have always informed Sen. Dela Rosa [of] this hearing. And he would like to attend. He is welcome to attend, but, of course, we will still follow parliamentary courtesy [as] a sitting senator.”