DOJ Secretary Vitalliano Aguirre II. INQUIRER.net / Jhoanna Ballaran
A government body formed to investigate cases of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) is keeping its hands off the killings of drug suspects, saying the administrative order that created it, issued by former President Benigno Aquino III, excluded drug-related killings from its mandate.
The Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) on EJKs, headed by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, made the clarification following a meeting on Oct. 25.
In a statement issued on Friday by the Department of Justice on its behalf, the IAC cited Administrative Order No. 35, issued by Aquino, defining the IAC’s role as investigating body for killings related to “political, environmental, agrarian, labor or other similar causes” and of media men.
“The IAC has not taken cognizance of the reported extrajudicial killings of drug users and pushers as this matter does not fall under its mandate,” said the DOJ statement quoting the IAC.
Aguirre presided over the Oct. 25 meeting which was attended by Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa and representatives from the Presidential Human Rights Commission, Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of Interior and Local Government and offices of the presidential advisers for the peace process and political affairs.
During that meeting, the IAC reviewed 32 unsolved EJK cases but decided that only one case, involving two victims, merited investigation by the body. The other killings had been considered as “common crimes.”
The single case recognized as EJK by the IAC brought to 219 the total number of EJK cases being investigated by the body since its creation in 2012.
The IAC also reviewed 27 cases of enforced disappearances, 80 cases of torture and seven cases of serious human rights violations.
The Duterte administration has been criticized by a number of countries before the United Nations Human Rights Council for not investigating the thousands of killings of drug suspects either in police operations or gangland-style street executions.