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Friday, March 29, 2024

New rules on drug war sought

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A GROUP of human rights lawyers has asked the Supreme Court to act on the government’s campaign against illegal drugs and create a new procedure in a bid to serve justice to the victims of summary executions.

The Center for International Law  or Center Law asked the high court to promulgate a policy creating a writ of contra homo sacer to ensure due process is accorded to suspected drug dealers and other crime suspects.

Homo sacer refers to a class of people in ancient Rome who were treated as outlaws who had no rights and who could be killed without the killer being regarded as a murderer.

In other developments:

Eight drug suspects were killed and another was wounded in police anti-drug operations in Batangas, Laguna and Cavite on Thursday.

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Police confiscated about P2 million worth of shabu in Caloocan City on Wednesday afternoon.

In Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, 2015 Miss World-Philippines Hillary Parungao asked the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police to conduct an independent investigation on her father’s  alleged suicide  inside the police station in Solano town.

Parungao said her father Edmundo, 40, who was tagged as an illegal drug user, had earlier volunteered himself to undergo drug rehabilitation and finished the program.

“He sacrificed those times away from us to get clean and sober. He voluntarily surrendered to show his willingness and cooperation,” she said.

Center Law believes the current administration treats suspected drug dealers and dependents as Homo sacer. 

“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.”

The group led by Joel Butuyan claims that the war on drugs initiated by President Rodrigo Duterte had already resulted in the killing of at least 8,000 people since July last year.

Under its proposed writ, a new mandatory inquest procedure would be instituted to address the deaths arising from police operations as well as from vigilante-style killings.

Center Law says the writ would require a full documentation of any operation on the part of the PNP.

“This includes the mandatory submission of detailed reports, forensic evidence, autopsy reports and the like that comply with international standards,” the group said. 

“Many of these documentary requirements, while already provided under the existing rules of the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police, are often ignored by authorities.

“The obligation of police officers to turn over records, documents and all evidence in connection with the commission of a crime as they themselves allege must be required all the more if the suspect ends up dead either at the hands of police officers or unknown assailants.”

Center Law suggested to the high court to adopt international standards laid down by the United Nations Minnesota Protocol on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal Killings, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, Enforced Disappearances and Torture in crafting the new writ.

The high court has already put in place the writs of Amparo and habeas data as protective remedies against the human rights abuses of law enforcement authorities.

Center Law filed an Amparo petition earlier this year for a survivor and the families of four men allegedly killed by members of the Quezon City Police District in Payatas during an anti-drug operation last year. 

Last February, the Court of Appeals issued a permanent protection order in favor of the victims after state solicitors hardly objected to the plea of the petitioners.  

The Office of the Solicitor General did not oppose the issuance of the protective order, saying it is the duty of authorities to protect the citizens.  

Several groups are opposing the war on drugs, saying the killings will not stop the illegal drug trade.

“The illegal drug trade is only a symptom of deeper social problems like rising poverty, joblessness, extreme hunger, injustice and inequality that push people to the underworld economy out of desperation,” said Anakbayan chairman Vencer Crisostomo.

The war on drugs, the group said, was bound to fail if not accompanied by deeper social change involving genuine land reform, the creation of jobs through the building of national industries, and massive social welfare for the affordable rehabilitation of parts of the population victimized by the drug menace. With Francisco Tuyay, Jun David and Ben Moses Ebreo

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