Solon to PNP chief: Crying won’t erase suspicions about killings

Director General Ronald dela Rosa (center), chief of the Philippine National Police, gestures before the start of a Senate investigation on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, on the death of Kian Loyd delos Santos, a 17-year-old student who was killed in an alleged drug crackdown, last Aug. 16. The killing has sparked public outrage over President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called war on drugs. (Photo by AARON FAVILA / AP)

No, Bato, shedding tears in public will not solve your problems.

A lawmaker on Wednesday told the barrel-chested chief of the Philippine National Police, Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, that crying in Senate hearings would not vanish questions about the suspicious and alarming killings of suspects in President Duterte’s war on drugs.

In a statement, Kabayan Rep. Harry Roque said Dela Rosa should instead make public inquest reports on the thousands of suspects killed in police operations, including 17-year-old Kian delos Santos and 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz, whose deaths in the hands of police provoked a public outcry.

He noted that under the PNP’s own operations procedure, there should be “no presumption of regularity” in police operations that result in the deaths of suspects.

Under Rule 15.4 of the police manual, “inquest is mandatory when a suspect dies during a police operation,” Roque said.

“My question to PNP Chief Ronald dela Rosa is, where are the inquest reports of all these deaths?” Roque said. “[These reports] are necessary to remove doubt on any irregularity in police operations in which the death of a suspect happened,” he said.

“Crying during hearings will not remove these doubts,” he said.

On Tuesday, Dela Rosa broke down as he defended his organization from charges that it was behind the extrajudicial killing of thousands of drug suspects, saying President Duterte never gave him orders to kill.

In November last year, the police chief also cried when he appeared at the Senate under similar circumstances.

Roque said Dela Rosa should see to it that his men followed the police manual in drug raids, citing the suspicious circumstances in the deaths of Delos Santos and Arnaiz, who were separately gunned down two days apart by police in Caloocan City.

“It is alarming when two lives are ended too soon. It is doubly terrifying when these lives were ended by agents of the state,” he said.

Police bible

“I expect Director General Ronald dela Rosa to order the PNP chain of command to enforce the strict observance of the provisions of the PNP-OP, as this is the police bible for any and all police operations. The families of Kian and Carl, and all the other victims deserve no less,” Roque said.

Citing official data from the Philippine Information Agency, he said there were 3,811 deaths in the government’s campaign against narcotics from July 1, 2016, to Aug. 29, 2017.

“In fact, in one month—from July 27 to Aug. 29—there have been 360 deaths at the hands of the police. The 3,811 does not even include the homicides with links to illegal drugs,” he said.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has also asked the PNP to open the investigation reports on those killings.

But Dela Rosa told reporters on Monday that he could not release the reports to the CHR without clearance from President Duterte.

He said Mr. Duterte had given instructions not to release the investigation reports without his permission.

Dela Rosa’s tearful defense of the PNP came after Sen. Risa Hontiveros made the observation that there seemed to be a policy to kill drug suspects in the war on drugs.

Talking to reporters later on Tuesday, Mr. Duterte said two deaths, referring to the killings of Delos Santos and Arnaiz, did not mean the government had a policy to kill drug suspects.

“She is so stupid,” he said, referring to Hontiveros.

President’s words are policy

Hontiveros responded on Wednesday, saying the deaths of 8,000 to 13,000 suspects in the war on drugs showed there was a policy to kill despite Mr. Duterte’s denial.

“I’m not a genius but I know that while two deaths do not make a policy, thousands dead, without remorse, regret or action from the government, do,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“Eight thousand to 13,000 have already died in this bloody war on drugs, mostly from the ranks of the poor,” she added.

“President Duterte may insult me but he cannot deny the fact that his words coming from his lips, or those of any head of state, have the effect of policy,” she said, citing Mr. Duterte’s “well-documented record of encouraging violence against drug dependents and suspected drug pushers.”

Vice President Leni Robredo joined the fray, calling on the PNP to prove to the people that it does not approve of killing drug suspects.

“I think it is the obligation of the police to show the people that they do not sanction these kinds of killings. Whatever they say, if it is contrary to what the people see, the question will always be there,” Robredo said. —With reports from Nikko Dizon and Jeannette I. Andrade