VACC urges Palace, SC to look into drug war fatalities

An anticrime watchdog is urging Malacañang and the Supreme Court to deal with the rising number of fatalities in President Duterte’s war on drugs and give justice to innocent “collateral victims” caught in the crossfire.

The Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) founding chair, Dante Jimenez, urged President Duterte to create a special task force to investigate the deaths from stray bullets, mistaken identity or accidental shooting in drug-related shootings carried out by the police and criminal syndicates.

In his Jan. 3 letter to Malacañang, Jimenez said the special task force should be composed of prosecutors or commissioned lawyers who would complete the probe of the cases involving innocent victims within 30 days from the start of the investigation.

“The above recommendation will ensure that the people who have been affected by the ‘collateral’ damage will remain faithful to the government’s thrust of a peaceful and drug-free community,” Jimenez said.

Special courts

As a complementary move, Jimenez also wrote Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to designate special courts to handle the cases involving innocent victims and monitor the cases closely to ensure that they were resolved within the prescribed period.

Jimenez told Sereno that “an increased number of innocent people are expected to fall victims as ‘collateral damage’ in the war against illegal drugs considering the magnitude of illegal drugs in the country.”

According to the Philippine National Police, from July to December 2016, there were 2,928 deaths under investigations or murder cases not automatically connected with the war on drugs or immediately attributed as extrajudicial killings.

Mr. Duterte has apologized for the deaths of innocent victims who were caught in the crossfire.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson has urged the President to consider giving justice and  granting compensation to the innocent victims of his drug war. Lacson has suggested that Malacañang at least give burial assistance or scholarship grants to the families of the innocent victims.