New killing spree sparks outrage

A new wave of killings in the government’s antidrug campaign that has left at least 80 people dead in Metro Manila and a nearby province this week has raised alarm and outrage from both critics and allies of President Duterte.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella on Friday defended Mr. Duterte, saying the public has welcomed the “safer” streets that resulted from the war on drugs spearheaded by the Philippine National Police.

“The perspective of the President has been very clear from the very beginning. This is not a reckless exercise of bloodletting. There is a rhyme and reason in the police operations,” Abella said.

The outrage was sparked by the killing of 17-year-old Grade 12 student Kian Loyd delos Santos in Caloocan City on Tuesday night. Officers said he had pulled a gun on them, forcing them to shoot him. However, closed circuit television (CCTV) footage appeared to show they already had the boy in custody before he was killed.

Commenting on the boy’s killing, Abella said: “That incident, happily, I think is isolated.”

A revised transcript of his statement to Malacañang reporters replaced the word “happily” with “haply,” meaning by chance or accident.

“This is not to exonerate everything that happens, but to put context in what government is doing. It is addressing what is happening on the ground to stop something that is destroying the country,” Abella said.

The Northern Police District reported 24 were killed, including 13 in Caloocan City, on Thursday and Friday in its antidrug campaign.

Several senators allied to or generally supportive of the President’s policies were jarred by the spike in the death toll and the Caloocan boy’s killing.

“It’s worrisome, to say the least, coming even from somebody who in his previous lifetime as a law enforcer was a natural suspect in violating human rights of crime suspects that we used to pursue,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP chief, said in a text message.

Lacson, chair of the Senate committee on public order, warned that the Senate would exercise its oversight authority with an inquiry of its own if investigations by the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) and the Department of Justice were found to be a cover-up.

Abella said the campaign was meant to target street peddlers to destroy the distribution network and addressed both the demand and supply of illegal drugs.

The PNP chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, said the recent spike in the number of deaths “is normal because these are massive police operations.”

“I don’t think it should be alarming,” he said.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee, advised Mr. Duterte “as a friend” to refrain from making pronouncements that would “put pressure” on the police.

The President had said it was a “good” thing that 32 alleged drug offenders in Bulacan province had been killed earlier this week and added that if that number were the daily toll, the country could be rid of the drug menace.

“You cannot fight the drug menace by just killing,” Gordon said. “You must go to the source.”

Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito condemned the boy’s killing and said he was worried that rogue officers were taking advantage of the President’s promise to protect them.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian called for a Senate investigation of the killing “to establish the true facts.” He said he wanted “to ensure that police impunity will never become the status quo in the Philippines.”

Sen. Sonny Angara also said the Senate needed to look into the killings as the body count was reaching “alarming levels” and “to ensure that we are not creating killing machines.”

The CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts showed the police officers involved in the killing of Delos Santos were “not only abusive, they are killers and criminals,” according to Sen. Francis Escudero.

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima, one of Mr. Duterte’s sharpest critics, said the President had a “deranged mind” for wanting 32 suspected drug offenders killed daily.

“They are demonic executioners,” a fuming De Lima told reporters at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court where her arraignment on drug charges had been deferred anew.

Another critic, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, said the killings were “too much [and] very wrong.”

“I cannot, in conscience, let this pass. The senators should have a united stand to stop this,” he said.

Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, a former Marine captain, called on the police to defy illegal orders from the President in the war on drugs, reminding them of their duty to serve and protect the people.

“You are not the private army of Duterte,” Alejano said.

Commission on Human Rights Chair Chito Gascon said “the pace and scale” of the killings were “unprecedented,” adding that the President’s statements have “emboldened the security forces” to commit abuses with impunity.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro said the killing of Delos Santos was proof of a “fascist, antipoor tool in the guise of an antidrug campaign.”

“This so-called war on drugs is actually a war against the people, mostly the poor, who are being killed on mere suspicion and say-so of police,” Castro said.

Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the committee on public affairs of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the police actions “already border on insanity” and that the killings cast doubts on the capability of law enforcers to do their jobs rationally and professionally.

Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros urged the government to give higher priority to drug rehabilitation because drug addiction was “more a sickness rather than a crime.”

“We do not know the motivation of the police why they had to do the killings … maybe to impress the President who wanted more,” he said.

“God’s commandment tells us, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ For this reason we condemn such killings,” he added. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA, DJ YAP, JOCELYN R. UY, JODEE AGONCILLO, JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE, JULIE M. AURELIO, JHESSET O. ENANO AND DEXTER CABALZA