MANILA – Cabinet members of the former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration admitted there were human rights violations in the conduct of the controversial “war on drugs.”
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, who then served as Department of Justice secretary, said they investigated cases of human rights violations through mechanisms such as those provided under Administrative Order (AO) No. 35, issued in 2012.
AO No. 35 created an inter-agency committee on extra-legal killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other grace violations to the rights to life, liberty, and security of persons.
The committee’s mandate is to serve as the government’s institutional machinery dedicated to the resolution of unsolved cases of political violence in the form of extra-legal killings (ELK), enforced disappearances (ED), torture and other grave violations of the right to life, liberty and security of persons.
“Palagay ko po wala naman tayong disagreement na meron po talagang mga insidente ng human rights violations, hindi lamang po doon sa drug war. Marami pa pong ibang insidente na kami po ay nag imbestiga through the mechanism called AO No. 35,” Guevarra said.
“Kung ang katanungan nyo po ay is it a fact kung merong human rights violations na may kinalaman sa war on drugs, I think ang sagot ko po dyan ay mayroon. At yan po ay kailangan lamang natin i-establish by means of competent evidence,” he added.
“Case to case basis po. Hindi naman po lahat ng may namatay sa police operation ay masasabi na may violation ng human rights. This is subject to the defenses din po ng mga law enforcement agents concerned,” he further said.
Former Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Oscar Albayalde, for his part, said there were violations of human rights even before the administration of former President Duterte.
“Yes, even in the past. Hindi lang po noong panahaon ni dating Presidente Duterte. Even in the past there were alleged human rights violations,” Albayalde said.
Guevarra and Albayalde made their statements during the House of Representatives’ Committee on Human Rights hearing on the killings attributed to the “war on drugs” of the Duterte administration.
According to government records, there are around 6,200 drug suspects killed during the Duterte administration’s anti-drug police operations, but human rights organizations said the number may reach 30,000 due to the unreported related slays./PN
