More witnesses face the Senate as the investigation on extrajudicial killings resumes. MAILA AGER/INQUIRER.net
A Catholic priest on Thursday called the Senate inquiry into the government’s bloody war on drugs as an indication of a “working democracy.”
Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Permanent Committee on Public Affairs, expressed alarm that extrajudicial killings might be the “new normal” if institutions like the Senate did not push through with their investigation.
“I support the ongoing Senate investigation on extrajudicial killings because it shows that we have a working democracy. If other State institutions would do nothing about the spate of killings in the country, then killing extra-judicially would become the ‘new normal’ in our society especially with the public’s apparent acceptance of it,” Secillano said over church-run Radyo Veritas.
Led by Sen. Leila de Lima as chair of the committee on justice and human rights, the Senate committees on justice and public order started the hearing this week, amid a mounting body count in the Duterte administration’s relentless antidrug drive.
READ: De Lima denounces summary execution
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano sought De Lima to inhibit from the investigation amid allegations of drug links and personal tirades from no less than the President himself.
Secillano said the Senate hearing was a first step in upholding human rights and due process for suspected drug perpetrators.
READ: Human rights is the ‘price to pay’ for safety–Duterte
“Although the investigation will not lead us to conclusive findings that extrajudicial killings are perpetrated by government operatives, at least this hearing will temper any attempt to railroad due process and the simple disregard for man’s basic right to life,” he said.
On Tuesday’s hearing, Philippine National Police chief Ronald de la Rosa said there had been 1,067 killings by unidentified individuals and 712 killings by police since July 1, when Duterte took office. The Inquirer’s “Kill List” counts 729 drug-related deaths from June 30 to August 22. IDL/rga
READ: THE KILL LIST
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