TO ALLOW, or not to allow?
That is the question hounding the administration vis-à-vis the July 11 resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) calling the government to allow it to probe the killing of thousands of Filipinos in the “war on drugs”.
President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to arrest UN special rapporteurs who would come to the Philippines to investigate.
To Sen. Franklin Drilon, they should be allowed as an act of statesmanship and maturity.
“Let’s project statesmanship and maturity as a country,” he said. “Let’s keep an open mind, not shut doors to international bodies objectively looking into the issue. We will rise to the challenge and the challenge is to improve the human rights situation in the country.”
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, on the other hand, would rather not allow direct UN investigation. He would prefer to merely produce a comprehensive report on “war on drugs” and give a copy to the UNHRC.
“We’re being treated like kids that do not know what they are doing,” he opined.
Alas, how could Lacson trust that proposed report to be truthful? Wasn’t he the same senator who, in January 2017, showed a CCTV presentation in the Senate showing identified police officers in civilian clothing planting shabu as “evidence” during an anti-drug operation?
That and many other video, audio and documentary pieces of evidence are among the grounds that compelled the UNHR in Geneva, Switzerland to pass the Iceland-led resolution with 18 member countries voting in favor and 14 against. The other 15 abstained.
While human rights groups estimate extrajudicial killings to have reached 27,000 cases, the Philippine National Police (PNP) recognizes only 6,600 drug-related on the pretext that the victims resisted arrest and fought back.
A celebrated murder case which resulted in a court “conviction” of three Caloocan policemen was that of 17-year-old Kian Lloyd delos Santos. The accused claimed having killed the teenager in an encounter in August 2017 but CCTV footage and witnesses revealed that he was dragged to a dark alley and shot.
The latest “collateral damage” is three-year-old Myka Upina who died with his father on Sunday (July 7) in crossfire in Rodriguez, Rizal that also cost the life of a raiding policeman.
Whether or not the Philippine government allows UN special rapporteurs to come to the Philippines to investigate the killings, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet would prepare a report for discussion by June next year.
If the Philippine government has nothing to hide, why deny a UN body the opportunity to correct the “wrong impression”? That impression stems from the inability of the legislative and judicial branches of government to come up with credible findings.
Remember when Sen. Leila de Lima, as then chair of the Senate Justice and Human Rights committee, called for an end to vigilante killings of drug suspects in September 2016?
She was stripped of her chairmanship and was herself investigated for her alleged collusion with jailed drug traffickers who were ordered to testify against her, obviously under duress, in a congressional probe. The Department of Justice – which she had led during the PNoy administration – filed a case against her at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court for “conspiracy to commit drug trading.” There was no attempt among her Senate colleagues to defend her.
Jailed in Camp Crame for more than two years already, she has made use of her time writing a book – Dispatches from Crame II: Faith, Hope & Love — on human rights, press freedom and what it’s like to be a “prisoner of conscience”. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
