De Lima vows to go after vigilantes

Local officials who would resort to vigilantism in the fight against crime could expect to be summoned to the Senate for investigation, Senator-elect Leila de Lima said on Wednesday.

The former Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair lamented that the controversial stance of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte in dealing with crime had spawned the likes of Tanauan, Batangas, Mayor Antonio Halili, who has ordered a “walk of shame” for arrested criminals in his city.

“[Duterte has] emboldened similarly minded local officials to implement their own antihuman rights policies,” De Lima told the Inquirer in an interview.

De Lima, also a former justice secretary, warned Duterte and other tough-talking politicians that she would be a “watchdog” in the Senate.

“Now that I will be part of the Senate, that part of me as a human rights advocate and defender will play a very important role in discharging my duties as member of the Senate,” she said.

“I will fight those kind of policies. My exposure in the (CHR) would come in very handy. I will be a watchdog,” she added.

Duterte, who will become the 16th President of the Philippines on June 30, has promised mass killings of suspected criminals under his presidency.

He has said he will ask Congress to restore the death penalty, introduce death by hanging, and give “shoot-to-kill” orders for people involved in organized crime and those who will resist arrest.

Duterte has been linked to  the Davao Death Squad, a loose-knit group of vigilantes blamed for the murders of dozens of suspected criminals in Davao City.

The trash-talking mayor of Davao has denied taking part in the killings, but has repeatedly condoned them.

After the elections, incoming Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña began talking tough, offering  a P50,000 reward for policemen who would kill big-time drug traffickers in the city.

But De Lima said such policy was a clear violation of the constitutional right to presumption of innocence of suspected criminals.

The Bill of Rights also assures suspected criminals of protection under the law.

“I just hope they will be able to find, arrest and put to shame big-time drug lords and not just the ordinary drug pushers,” De Lima said.

“They may be truly drug pushers, but it’s not the mayor who should make that judgment. It’s only the courts [that] could do that,” she said.