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22 June 2009
CHR FORMS INTER-AGENCY TASK FORCE ON DAVAO DEATH SQUADS
The issue of vigilante killings of suspected criminals is a complex issue that needs the cooperation of many various government offices. This is why the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is forming a multi-agency task force to look into the extra-legal killings attributed to the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS).
The Commission en banc recently adopted a resolution to this effect because of “compelling reasons to broaden not just the investigative aspect but other areas of coordination and assistance as well, for a more expeditious and effective investigation of aforesaid extralegal killings.”
“The duty to protect and promote human rights does not fall on the shoulders of the CHR alone, “ says CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima. “ALL government agencies, in any branch, have roles to play in protecting human rights under their respective mandates.” This collaboration with relevant government agencies will facilitate the resolution of related issues of witness protection, drugs, minor victims and accountability of public officials, among others.
The task force will be led by the Commission, with representatives from PNP, NBI, DSWD, PDEA, BJMP, DOH, DOJ, Office of the Ombudsman, DILG, DND, and AFP.
The Commission is convening this multi-agency group under its constitutional power to request the assistance of any department, bureau, office or agency.
On March 30 this year, the CHR began a series of pubic inquiries into the situation in Davao City where suspected criminals have been found dead, reportedly killed by a group of vigilantes dubbed by media as the Davao Death Squads or DDS.
The CHR is concerned because these killings demonstrate violations of not only the right to life but also the right of persons suspected of crimes.
The DDS phenomenon is a paradox in itself where a city, which prides itself in its peacefulness and orderliness, is also plagued by an unabated string of vigilante killings.
At least 538 persons have been killed in Davao City since 1998, some of them children or minors. Reports, confirmed and unconfirmed, claim that the victims were suspected of committing crimes such as drug use, drug pushing or petty thievery (pick pocketing). The phenomenon was covered by the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executives during his visit to the Philippines in February 2007. Philip Alston said that children suspected of picking pockets should not be subject to executions. It was also the subject of a special report of the Human Rights Watch, an international NGO based in New York , released April of this year.
The Commission points out that “Everyone should be considered and treated as innocent until proven guilty and so convicted by the proper court after a fair trial. No one has the right to take the law into their own hands and punish persons they think are guilty of crimes. That kind of vigilantism will erode the rule of law.”
The Commission recognizes that the creation of the multi-agency task force will greatly aid its efforts in ensuring that the human rights violations perpetrated by the DDS shall no longer go unpunished.