CHR lacks personnel to probe extrajudicial killings

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) does not have enough personnel to investigate the hundreds of extrajudicial killings reported in the first two months of the Duterte administration, CHR Chair Jose Luis Gascon told a budget hearing in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Gascon said the high rate of alleged summary killings in the Duterte administration was worse than the dark days of the Marcos administration.

“We do have to stress we have not experienced these scale or magnitude of cases since the CHR was established in 1987. Perhaps during martial law period, there might have been significant amount of cases, but of this nature or magnitude, none,” he said.

Gascon said there was also a spike in extrajudicial killings of activists and journalists during the Arroyo administration from 100 to 200 cases but this was over a period of 12 to 18 months.

He said the relatively small number of killings was enough to justify a visit from a UN special rapporteur.

Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that the PNP was investigating the killings of 1,160 drug suspects by unnamed vigilantes on top of the 700-plus cases killed under suspicious circumstances by the police.

Unprecedented scale

“So together, they’re close to 1,900 in the last 55 days since July 1, the magnitude or scale is unprecedented,” Gascon said.

He said the CHR could only look into less than 20 percent of these cases.

Gascon has asked Congress for additional budget to hire more investigators and buy more equipment for upgrading its processes.

Also yesterday at a House hearing, Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Chair Felipe L. Rojas Jr. said only 9 percent of the 600,000 who had surrendered under the antidrug campaign needed to undergo rehabilitation.

“There are reports that they have been coerced to put their name on record. But that is not an immunity from arrest,”  Rojas said.

“I can say that not all of those who surrendered are drug users. Most of those who surrendered were either  threatened by the barangay captain or they just wanted to join the group for safety,” said Dr. Jasmine Peralta, program manager of the Department of Health (DOH) and the DDB, told the House hearing on dangerous drugs.

Peralta said the names of the people who surrendered appeared on a watch list compiled by the police and barangay captains but she was unsure about the basis for their being listed.

“Based on those we have interviewed on the ground, they were listed as either drug pusher or drug addict, and they just came out to clear themselves and not to admit the charges. That is what is happening on the ground,” Peralta said.

Peralta said the DOH would have to profile the surrenderees to determine who among them needed to stay in rehabilitation centers and who were experimental users requiring out-patient treatment.