Drilon: Senators’ partisanship tainted EJK probe

Sen. Franklin Drilon on Tuesday expressed disappointment over the concluded Senate hearings on the spate of killings in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, saying that the senator’s partisanship affected the probe.

“The partisanship among the senators has colored the investigation. That’s really how I feel about it,” Drilon said in an INQ&A interview.

Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, wrapped up the inquiry last month and cleared Duterte of any liability on extrajudicial killings in the antidrug campaign.

The Senate probe saw a number of heated exchanges between the lawmakers, particularly between Gordon and former justice panel head Sen. Leila de Lima, Duterte’s staunchest critic, who was kicked out by his colleagues from the committee leadership.

Drilon said the hearings should have focused on reforming the system “so the people will believe that going through the process is the solution rather than going through it in their own hands.”

“To me the focus of the extrajudicial killings is an offshoot of impunity. We should show to our people that we can punish crimes by going through a process. We cannot have shortcuts. That should be the focus–why there is a failure of the system,” he added.