House sets own probe into killings

THE HOUSE committee on rules will tackle this week a resolution backed by Liberal Party members to investigate the alleged summary killings during police operations against illegal drugs.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas said House leaders had decided to sit down and discuss the proposed probe on alleged extrajudicial killings which has polarized the membership.

“That matter will be taken up in the rules committee meeting next Wednesday,” said Fariñas in a text message from Rio de Janeiro where he led a special House committee to the Olympics.

The Senate committees on justice and human rights, and dangerous drugs, are scheduled to hold a hearing on Aug. 22 on the alleged summary executions of suspected
criminals.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat of the LP filed House Resolution No. 7 seeking an inquiry into the Philippine National Police’s crackdown on drug lords and pushers, which has resulted in more than 1,500 deaths allegedly due to victims resisting arrest or shooting at the police.

Alarmed by impunity

While the public has generally cheered the President’s crackdown on illegal drugs, Baguilat said some sectors were alarmed by the impunity by which the police were carrying out the mandate—sometimes at the expense of the rule of law and people’s rights.
Five other LP members—Bataan Rep. Henedina Abad, Negros Oriental Rep. Josie Limkaichong, Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Sato and Dinagat Island Rep. Kaka Bag-ao—had also come out with a statement urging the House leadership to investigate the police operations because “hundreds of Filipino men and women have been killed among us, many of them unproven drug pushers or addicts, and all of them denied their right to due process or a chance to defend themselves.”

Even the Makabayan bloc, an ally of President Duterte, supports the clamor to investigate these killings, said ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, however, has said he would not allow a House probe into the alleged summary killings because this was a police matter that should be investigated by the Department of Justice and National Police Commission.

Constitutional guarantee

The Constitution, to which all government officials take their oath, guarantees that “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.” It also guarantees protection from threats and intimidation, and searches on their homes without warrants, among other things. In criminal prosecutions, any accused shall be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, the charter states. TVJ