No cop charged yet for drug killings

Since President Duterte began his bloody war on illegal drugs at the start of his administration in July, the Philippine National Police has noted a surge in the number of deadly encounters between policemen and drug offenders that could be regarded as “procedurally questionable.”

No murder case, however, has been filed against policemen for the killing of any suspect, Maria Constantinopla of the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service (IAS), said at the resumption of the Senate inquiry into alleged extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

Constantinopla told the joint hearing of the committees on justice and human rights and  public order and dangerous drugs that from January to

October, the PNP-IAS had conducted motu propio investigation of 1,411 cases. Of this figure, deaths resulted in 1,298 incidents from July, upon

Mr. Duterte’s assumption of the presidency.

The IAS representative said that of the total, 300 cases had been resolved or “considered closed because they are legitimate operations.”

Only 28 cases, she said, are undergoing summary hearing because of the finding of probable cause that the policemen had violated operational procedures. Only one case in Metro Manila, specifically in Pasay City, is in the summary hearing stage.

Violating police procedures resulting in death, she said, qualifies for an administrative case of grave misconduct.

Asked by Sen. Richard Gordon, the justice and human rights committee chair, if the IAS could file criminal cases, Constantinopla said, “We have the intention of filing murder cases against police personnel because it is within our mandate but as of the moment we haven’t filed a single case.”

Deaths under inquiry

Supt. Joel Coronel, Manila police chief, said that anti-illegal drug operations had resulted in the death of 200 suspects from July 1 to Oct. 5 in the city. There were 54 incidents in Manila involving death under inquiry (DUI), of which nine had been resolved and seven suspects identified. Four these suspects were killed during arrest operations.

Manila drug hubs

Coronel cited three motives in the DUIs:  the nonremittance of drug money; a turf war

between rival drug syndicates; and “the possibility of policemen, formerly involved in drugs, killing their own sources.”

According to him, of the policemen responsible for DUIs, two are in active service while the rest are former policemen.

He pointed out that Tondo and Sampaloc have been identified by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as drug hubs in Manila. “Most of distribution network comes from those areas, markets coming from the neighborhood. It is precisely why we are correlating robbery and theft to use of drugs,” he said.

Coronel said drug abuse had affected 92 percent of Manila’s barangays.