A lawyer has backed a call for the Supreme Court to formulate a new procedure to address human rights violations under President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.
In a letter to the high court, lawyer Severo Brillantes said a new writ would protect drug suspects and serve justice to victims of extrajudicial killings under the Oplan Tokhang of the Philippine National Police.
Brillantes, counsel of parents and teachers from Manila Science High School in an earlier petition that sought to stop the K-12 program, also threw his support to the petition of legal advocacy group Center for International Law for a new procedure that would ensure checks and balances would deter human rights violations in the bloody war on drugs.
“We believe that among others, what will deter extrajudicial killings is the certainty of investigation, prosecution and eventual conviction of their perpetrators; that is, for everyone to be made aware that an investigation will inevitably automatically be conducted, with the suspected perpetrators subsequently prosecuted and those found guilty thereafter meted the punishment due to them,” he said.
The lawyer told the SC that the PNP already admitted that 2,710 have been killed in the drug war as of April but the number has yet to be verified in a formal and independent probe.
Brillantes believes the creation of a writ of contra homo sacer requiring mandatory inquest procedure would not suffice.
According to him, the limited periods provided for under Article 125 of the Revised Penal Code and the summary nature of inquest proceedings have been inadequate to enable the investigating prosecutor to avail of all legal means necessary to make an exhaustive investigation in EJK cases.
“We propose instead that these additional rules be incorporated with the Rule on Arrest (Rule 113 of the 2000 Rules of Criminal Procedure) as well as the Rule on Preliminary Investigation (Rule 112),” the lawyer stressed.
Brillantes argued that the proposed measures would be consistent with the obligation of the Philippine government under international agreements “to carry out a prompt, impartial and independent ex-officio investigation of extrajudicial executions which among others, include killings resulting from excessive and/or unlawful use of lethal force by law enforcement officials and thus constitute violations of the inalienable and non-derogable right not to be arbitrarily deprived of life guaranteed under international law.”
“The International Commission of Jurists holds that the Philippines is bound by international law to probe extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary killings,” he said.
Last week, Center Law asked the SC justices in a petition letter to promulgate new rules creating the writ of contra homo sacer.
Homo sacer refers to a class of persons in ancient Rome that were treated as outlaws and without any rights. It is defined in legal terms as someone who can be killed without the killer being regarded as a murderer.
Center Law said it believes that drug suspects under the Duterte administration are being treated as such, saying they are “reduced to mere biological existence, denied of all rights, marked for execution anytime and anywhere” and “subject to banishment to the realm of uncertain fate.”