US group says summary slays common in PH

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Summary executions of crime suspects are a common practice in the Philippines, according to the US-based Human Rights Watch.

“Summary killings of suspected criminals are not new to the Philippines,” Human Rights Watch said in a 71-page report that tagged Reynaldo Uy, former Tagum mayor, as one of those responsible for the killing of nearly 300 crime suspects in the city from 2007 to 2013.

Uy denied the accusations in the report “One Shot to the Head: Death Squad Killings in Tagum City, Philippines,” saying they were based on testimony coerced and paid for by drug dealers and illegal gamblers.

But Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director, said in a statement that accompanied the release of the report on Wednesday that there was “compelling evidence” against Uy, who reportedly called the targets—suspected drug dealers, petty criminals, street children and others —“weeds” that had to be uprooted in a “perverse form of crime control.”

The New York-based international rights group said summary killing had been the tactic used by other officials, like Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

Citing its 2009 report “You Can Die Anytime: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao,” Human Rights Watch said Duterte’s “open endorsement of summary killings to fight criminals and his soaring popularity have encouraged other cities,” including Tagum.

In 2009, the rights group said “reports of similar killings in other Philippine cities suggest that the Davao Death Squad … has motivated other town officials to adopt extrajudicial killings as a crime control method.”

The report said Duterte and Lim got away with extrajudicial killings.

“Duterte’s popularity, built on his seeming willingness to engage in unlawful violence to eliminate common crime, a serious problem in many urban areas in the Philippines, has an appeal that extends far beyond Davao City,” the report said.