Robredo: War on drugs being used to justify killings, violence

Vice President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY—Vice President Leni Robredo expressed alarm over recent reported killings in the country amid the administration’s bloody war on illegal drugs.

Robredo said many of these incidents had no connection to the drug war, but were justified by the government’s effort to curb the drug menace.

“Ginagawa lang na dahilan ‘yung droga dito. Lately, hindi lang sa patayan, but sa kidnapping. Parang ‘tokhang for ransom (They’re using drugs as a reason. Lately, it hasn’t been just killings, but also kidnapping, a sort of tokhang for ransom,)” she said in a press conference on Saturday after visiting Cebu City Jail’s female dormitory and Operation Second Chance Center for children in conflict with the law.

The Vice President’s statement stemmed from a question about a woman’s headless remains found dumped on the side of a road in Sta. Maria town, Bulacan on Thursday evening.

READ: 5 killed in Bulacan; decapitated female body found

On Friday, two women were killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen at2 a.m. in Plaridel town while a man was killed in a gunfight with the police during a 3:30 a.m. drug bust in the City of Malolos.

“This has become alarming. Alarming in the sense that the rule of law is being disregarded. It’s as if anyone can just take the law into their hands. They no longer follow procedures that need to be followed,” Robredo said.

Robredo said the administration’s war on illegal drugs has bred a culture of hate and violence, which is very prevalent today.

She said there are so many reports on killings and even bombings all over the country, which are all interconnected, just because this kind of thinking isn’t being addressed.

“The message being projected here is giving people the license to resort to violence and that is what we want to stop,” Robredo said.

READ: Robredo warns of ‘growing culture of vigilantism, violence’

Since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in July, more than 6,000 persons were killed in the government’s war on illegal drugs.

More than 2,000 of these were killed in police operations while the rest died in vigilante-style or extrajudicial killings.

Robredo arrived in Cebu past 11 a.m. on Saturday and proceeded to hold separate consultations with Cebu City Jail’s female inmates and child offenders.

She vowed to come up with a holistic way to address the rehabilitation needs of female inmates and CICL in Cebu City.

“Majority of the inmates are here because of drug cases. I want to take the opportunity to introduce a program that will maximize rehabilitation while they are inside,” she said, although she did not elaborate.

She said the existing livelihood and rehabilitation programs in both facilities in Cebu City are better than most in other parts of the country, but the challenge is how to make long-lasting positive effects on inmates.

Among the concerns raised by inmates during the consultations were overpopulation, water supply, and delayed resolution of their cases.

Robredo said her office will advocate and lobby for this to the Supreme Court in a bid to put an end to “slow justice” and solve congestion issues inside jails.

The Cebu City Jail’s female dormitory only has a capacity of 62, but is currently accommodating more than 400 inmates. The 200-capacity CICL center, meanwhile, already has 217 residents.

After her visit to the Cebu City Jail, Robredo also met with local civil society organizations and entrepreneurs on Mactan Island.