The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has a perennial problem: it does not have full access to data on former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. This has been the case in the last eight years — still unchanged despite a change in Malacañang leadership.
“What became our problem here is, our police, they refuse cooperation with the Commission on Human Rights,” Palpal-latoc told the Senate during a hearing on Monday, October 28, in a mix of Filipino and English. “They refuse to give the commission documents.”
Among the police’s justification for withholding documents from the CHR is the Marcos administration’s list of exceptions released by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, issued after Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) No. 2 or Freedom of Information (FOI) policy in 2016.
“Ang ginagawa pong basis pa rin is iyong EO 2 under the list of exceptions (They are still using EO 2 as the basis, under the list of exceptions),” said Palpal-latoc.
EO No. 2 mandates all agencies under the executive branch to be transparent and release documents and other information to the public, but Bersamin’s list negates its intent and has been used to deny the requests even of a constitutional commission like the CHR.
The list of exceptions is long, but has not been divulged, effectively posing restrictions to information access. The EO is now being challenged before the Supreme Court as it was also used to justify secrecy in the use of confidential funds, particularly by Vice President Sara Duterte, the former president’s daughter.
“And because of this, it has become our problem to conduct a probe, we cannot finish our investigation. And now because of these congressional hearings, we are hoping to get new evidence and finally to close our probe,” said Palpal-latoc.
After the House of Representatives’ quad committee launched its probe into the drug war and extrajudicial killings, Palpal-latoc said they had the opportunity to speak with the Philippine National Police (PNP) Human Rights Affairs Office, where they raised the issue of access to information. The CHR said they even wrote to the PNP chief, but nothing came of it.
“They still refuse to provide information,” Palpal-latoc added. Rappler has already asked the PNP for comment. We will update this story once they respond.
Another basis for refusal, according to Palpal-latoc, was a PNP memorandum dated July 28, 2017, which has been used by the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) to deny the CHR’s subpoena for documents. This, on top of “verbal instructions” from “alleged superiors” of police chiefs, to refuse to cooperate with the CHR.
As the independent body mandated to investigate abuses committed by the government or state agents, it is important for the CHR to have access to drug war records, but it has been kept in the dark. Other agencies, like the Department of Justice (DOJ), also had difficulty accessing the records.
Under then-PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar, the PNP granted the DOJ limited access to its records in 2021. At least 52 drug war cases records — out of at least 30,000 people killed in the drug war — were shared with the DOJ only after the PNP IAS already resolved these cases.
A Rappler investigation revealed that of the 52 cases, 32 had been closed by authorities without the filing of a criminal complaint. There has only been one conviction, and even one case of acquittal.
Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Duterte’s first PNP chief who implemented the drug war in 2016, lectured the CHR about how to supposedly access drug war information with ease. The PNP chief-turned-senator said the CHR should have gone to Crame to easily access the documents they needed, since police stations are bound by the rules set by their higher-ups.
In response, Palpal-latoc said their personnel go directly to relevant agencies, witnesses, and those who can help in their probe instead of going to Crame. Heading to and coordinating with the PNP national headquarters will take a long time, explained Palpal-latoc.
But Dela Rosa insisted that directly coordinating with the PNP chief was easier: “No that’s easier. You are wrong. You are wrong. It’s easier if you will go directly to the CPNP (chief PNP).”
Dela Rosa’s assertion was gaslighting, or misleading at best, because when he was the PNP chief in 2018, he said that all requests for drug war reports must go through Duterte himself. In fact, the Duterte government also restricted information from other independent bodies like the Supreme Court (SC), and from petitioners of a case seeking to declare the drug war unconstitutional.
The SC required the Duterte government in 2017 to give the High Court access to drug war data, but former solicitor general Jose Calida refused to provide documents. The SC eventually denied Calida’s arguments, and compelled him to submit, saying that “this Court wants to know why so many deaths happened.” The petition against the drug war is still pending at the SC.
Meanwhile, Senator Jinggoy Estrada also used the Monday hearing to go after former senator and CHR chairperson Leila de Lima. Estrada claimed that the CHR and DOJ under De Lima failed to gather evidence against the alleged Davao Death Squad (DDS) under Duterte.
“That is a matter of incompetence,” said Estrada, whom De Lima prosecuted for the pork barrel scam.
Estrada’s claim about the DDS was not true, as pointed out by Palpal-latoc. The incumbent CHR chairperson noted that the DDS probe was concluded under the time of former CHR chairperson Etta Rosales, even endorsing its recommendations to the Office of the Ombudsman for the determination of filing of both criminal and administrative cases.
Later on, whistleblowers like self-confessed DDS hitman Arturo Lascañas surfaced to testify about Duterte’s death squad. In his affidavit, which has been accepted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Lascañas narrated how they took kill orders from Duterte when he was still the Davao City mayor. Aside from Lascañas, there are several testimonies that vouched for the existence of Duterte’s DDS.
Circling back to the police, have there been any changes on how the national police views the war which Duterte started?
Newly-appointed Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) chief Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla acknowledged that the PNP “has become a very political organization,” adding that the police, along with the National Police Commission (Napolcom), should be reformed. The new DILG chief also acknowledged how the PNP got entangled with the issue of extrajudicial killings.
“Well, the problem became systemic in the last administration because extrajudicial [as a way of] dispensing justice became the norm. And because that happened, there came a cultural shift inside the organization. And when that happens, you create a different kind of atmosphere and attitude with the officers there,” Remulla said in a Rappler Talk interview earlier this month. “It’s different when you put the power of God in your hands and they lose all moral compass.”
The current PNP leadership seems to be responsive to revelations made in the congressional probes, particularly the quad committee’s ongoing inquiry.
When retired police officer Jovie Espenido confirmed the drug war reward system, PNP chief Police General Rommel Francisco Marbil ordered a probe into the alleged quota and reward system. He also ordered a creation of a body that would examine the police’s anti-drug campaign, including operational protocols and accountability mechanisms.
After retired police colonel and alleged DDS member Royina Garma revealed how Duterte started the nationwide drug war and allegedly implemented the campaign through former Napolcom commissioner Edilberto Leonardo, Marbil called on former PNP chiefs “to clarify their roles during the anti-drug campaign.” He also ordered the reopening of cold cases of officials killed under Duterte’s drug war. (READ: How Duterte’s 5 am call to Garma starts a nationwide drug war)
“Under ordinary circumstances, these initiatives would be good. Except that the circumstances we’re in are not ordinary. The police are the main culprit in these serious allegations. They have proven that they cannot investigate themselves. Their internal processes are not only inadequate — they are defective and fundamentally flawed (i.e. IAS),” Human Rights Watch senior researcher Carlos Conde told Rappler.
But these efforts from the PNP cannot also remove the fact that killings continue and accountability has yet to be exacted from drug war culprits.
Data from the Dahas Project of the University of the Philippines’ Third World Studies Center revealed that drug war killings continue under Marcos. The project reported that there have been at least 822 killings since Marcos took office in 2022 up to October 28. On top of these, out of thousands killed in the drug war, there have only been four convictions so far.
The Marcos administration also stands firm that it won’t cooperate with the ICC.
If Marcos is really serious about addressing human rights issues in the country, there should be an independent body — not the PNP — that should be designated for a probe. Conde said the CHR could be the perfect body to exact accountability, as it is part of the commission’s mandate in the first place.
“It can be the CHR or it can be an independent body created by the president and composed of multiple other actors, not just law enforcement agencies. It should have the CHR in it, the rights NGOs (non-government organizations), crime watchdog groups, and possibly even the UN/OHCHR [United Nations/ Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]. The diplomatic community can be asked to get involved as well, even as observers,” Conde explained.
But while crucial information about the drug war are kept from the CHR, attaining justice will be next to impossible. After all, the road to accountability starts from transparency. – Rappler.com
*Some quotes were translated into English for brevity
