Ping seeks burial assistance, scholarships for ‘unintended victims’

Senator Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senator Panfilo Lacson has called for state compensation for “unintended victims” of the drug war as the Duterte administration pursues the campaign that has claimed thousands of lives.

In a Twitter post, Lacson sought reparation especially for the poor who have died as collateral damage in the bloody campaign.

“Unintended killings or collateral damage, especially the “slippers” victims of the government’s anti-drug war must at least be compensated,” Lacson said in his post.

Lacson posted his statement Friday night in the wake of President Duterte’s statements recognizing such “unintended slays” in the anti-drug campaign, acknowledging that even children had died in the crossfire in police operations against drug users and pushers.

Mr. Duterte’s admission came with an apology, saying in an interview on ABS-CBN that “there has to be a casualty and there has to be some drawbacks” in the campaign. He again called for public support for the relentless drive.

The deaths have exceeded 6,000, more than 2,000 of which were slays in police antidrug operations. Tthe rest are classified as “deaths under investigation” or DUIs, including vigilante killings that remain unresolved.

Asked to expound on his statement, Lacson said such compensation may come even without going to the courts.

“Even without the court’s intervention, which takes years to accomplish, the government can provide short term remedies through compensation by way of  assistance without necessarily admitting criminal or even civil liability,” Lacson told the Inquirer in a text message.

“It can be done through burial assistance or even scholarship programs for the children in case the “unintended victim” was the breadwinner,” said the Senator, chair of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs.

In the long run, he said, the government must bring to justice those responsible for the DUIs.

“The long term compensation is serving justice by going after the perpetrators of the so called vigilante killings. The police is wanting in this regard having resolved only 21% of the more than 4,000 cases of DUIs,” he said.

In a media forum earlier this month, Lacson called on the Philippine National Police to create a separate task force to investigate the more than 3,000 DUIs recorded since July, saying the resolution rate of just over a fifth of the total “was too low.”

He said the police should work towards resolving the cases instead of arguing that deaths also happened in previous administrations anyway.

Lacson co-chaired the Senate’s investigation into the spate of deaths in the drug war, in which the lead committee, Sen. Richard Gordon’s committee on justice and human rights, found no evidence of a state-sanctioned operation to liquidate drug suspects.

He also led the Senate inquiry into the Nov. 5 predawn slay of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., which he and several senators had said bore the hallmarks of premeditation.  CBB