Accountability

IN A TELEVISED address on May 31, President Duterte addressed human rights groups and told them that the government cannot give all the records of police killings in the drug war due to “national security issues.” His pronouncement came in the heels of the Philippine National Police’s announcement on May 25 that it would grant the Department of Justice (DOJ) access and allow them to investigate 61 cases out of more than 7,000; newly appointed PNP Chief Guillermo Eleazar later stated that they were willing to open the rest of the cases upon the DOJ’s request.

Well, opening a few cases of killings in police anti-drug operations to investigation would not lead to accountability if police killings and abuses continue without let-up, human rights watchdog Karapatan averred. It slammed the President’s decision to block access to records of police killings in the drug war as a “clear and undeniable pronouncement that this government openly encourages impunity — and that is not intent on pursuing any form of justice for the victims of State violence and human rights abuses.”
This question is legit: “How many more should die before it is acknowledged that the system that drives State security forces to kill civilians needs to be changed?”

And what is clear and apparent is that these violations are brazenly conducted, at many times in full view of an audience, and while these violations continue, the President is shielding the police by blocking access to records of police killings in the drug war.

Human rights advocates couldn’t be faulted with their perception that the dangerous mindset of normalizing such killings is deeply ingrained among State forces, and the recent statement of President Duterte spurning efforts to seek transparency on drug war records is yet another indication of deliberate impunity — one that shows the inadequacy and even failure of domestic mechanisms — in the country as police killings and abuses remain blatantly rampant.
What is clear and apparent, too, is that accountability should not just be a photo op or a press release. Rights activists will be closely watching Eleazar’s actions after President Duterte’s statement, but the fact still remains — the drug war victims and their kin need answers.

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