Senate bodies avoided leads on extrajudicial slays — De Lima

In this Dec. 6, 2016 file photo, Sen. Leila de Lima questions Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, Philippine National Police chief, on his statements about the circumstances behind the reinstatement of Chief Supt. Marvin Marcos, now a primary suspect in the murder of detained drug suspect, Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. — PHOTO BY MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/ INQUIRER

MANILA — The two Senate bodies that concluded there was no state-sponsored policy to exterminate drug pushers nationwide in line with the government’s war on drugs did not dig deeper into the relevant leads that would have proven tacit government support for the widespread extrajudicial killings in the country, Sen. Leila de Lima said on Thursday.

De Lima, who did not sign the committee report prepared by the Senate committees on justice and on public order and dangerous drugs, said the Senate panels did not pursue more witnesses to extrajudicial killings during police operations.  De Lima said they merely noted the few cases but did not investigate them thoroughly.

Instead, the two committees focused on other issues like demolishing the credibility of confessed assassin Edgar Matobato and focusing on her “bad behavior” and that of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

“They should have focused on the extrajudicial killings. So how can they have that conclusion that there is no State-sponsored extra judicial killing when they did not pursue the central issue of extrajudicial killings,” De Lima told reporters.

The two committees issued a joint report on Wednesday, concluding that President Duterte did not sanction killings of drug suspects when he declared a war against drug trafficking syndicates.

The two committees, however, recognized that thousands of murders have happened in the Philippines, without the perpetrators being brought to justice, in a continuing culture of impunity, not only in the past six months of the Duterte Administration, but in the past two decades.

The committee report urged President Duterte to advocate respect for and observance of due process in the leadership and rank and file of the Philippine National Police.  The Senate bodies also urged him to punish police officers who have violated the laws in the performance of their duties.

Eleven senators signed the committee report while five did not sign it.

The senators who signed the report were the committee chairs Senators Richard Gordon and Panfilo Lacson as well as Senators Gregorio Honasan II, Francis Pangilinan (signed with dissent and concurrence in parts), Loren Legarda, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Nancy Binay, Emmanuel Pacquiao, Alan Peter Cayetano (signed with reservations and amendments), Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon (signed with reservation and would interpellate) and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III.

Aside from De Lima, the other senators who did not sign were Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Grace Poe (who was on official business), JV Ejercito, and Minority Leader Ralph Recto.

Speaking to reporters, De Lima said that the committees no longer heard the statements of witnesses who had filed complaints with the Commission on Human Rights.  She had initially presented the witnesses to the senators when she still headed the justice committee. She said she was only able to present two of these witnesses as committee chair.

De Lima said these witnesses had experiences that should have been heard by the committees.

“The committees should have exerted effort in looking for more witnesses,” she added, noting that international news organizations were able to come up with these “disturbing” reports of extrajudicial killings.  SFM