Human Rights Watch wants Bato accountable for EJKs

The body of Valien Mendoza, a suspected drug dealer, gunned down by unidentified assailants in Manila in this photo taken on March 7, 2017. AFP file photo

Outgoing Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Dir. Gen. Ronald dela Rosa should answer for the thousands of deaths linked to the government’s bloody anti-illegal drug campaign, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Dela Rosa would leave behind a police force “with a sordid human rights record unmatched since the Marcos dictatorship” once he retires from service on Thursday.

Dela Rosa, however, said he is ready to face the possible charges that will be filed against him and will not back out in any challenge coming his way even when he steps down as chief PNP.

READ: Outgoing PNP chief Bato: I have ‘balls’ to face any charges

“As police chief, Dela Rosa deployed the forces that have waged President Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous ‘war on drugs.’ That campaign has targeted mainly urban slum dwellers and resulted in the deaths of more than 12,000 men, women and children by police and police-backed vigilantes,” HRW Asia Division researcher Carlos Conde said in a statement.

Dela Rosa will officially retire on Thursday and turn over his position to National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Dir. Gen. Oscar Albayalde, his mistah at the PMA Sinagtala Class of 1986.

During his 21-month term as the police chief, Dela Rosa led the PNP to wage President Rodrigo Duterte administration’s deadly anti-illegal drug campaign, which is believed to have killed thousands of suspected drug criminals since July 2016.

Since the campaign was launched, Conde said, Dela Rosa has been an “enthusiastic supporter” of the crackdown and rejected concerns about the soaring death toll of the police operations, saying the deaths were proof of an “uncompromising” police approach to drug crimes.

He also said the outgoing police chief has shown “no apparent concern” for calls for accountability for the deaths.

“This week, Dela Rosa boasted about his anti-drug efforts and welcomed ‘the new leadership that will infuse new blood into the campaign.’ Showing no apparent concern for calls for accountability for the drug-war deaths, Dela Rosa said he is willing to face prosecution for his role,” Conde said.

The PNP has said nearly 4,000 drug personalities have been killed in the nearly two-year intensified campaign against illegal drugs. It says most of the fatalities were killed while putting up violent or deadly resistance during police operations.

Dela Rosa, however, maintained that the campaign against illegal drugs would not end with his retirement and would instead be intensified by Albayalde.

The campaign is the subject of a petition before the Supreme Court, several investigations by the Commission on Human Rights and the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service, and a preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court.

In an interview with CNN Philippines early Wednesday, Dela Rosa said he’s got balls to face any charges that would be filed against him in relation to the anti-illegal drug campaign.

“Sabihin ko sa kanila, sa lahat, ako po ang naging chief PNP, at ako po ay may bayag, I have balls to face anything that you are going to charge against me,” he said.

(I will tell to all of them that I became the PNP chief and I have balls.)

“Dahil bakit ko tatakbuhan ang responsibilidad na yan (Why would I run from that responsibility)? If it happened during my time as the chief PNP, I am accountable for that,” he added.

The anti-illegal drug campaign is the subject of a petition before the Supreme Court, several investigations by the Commission on Human Rights and the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service, and a preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court. /jpv

RELATED STORY

Cayetano dares HRW: Show proof 12,000 were killed in PH drug war