[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’DE LIMA APPEALS TO DUTERTE
‘Instruct police to stop killing’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
MANILA – Sen. Leila de Lima has appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to stop the spate of killings of drug suspects.
“I’m just hoping that one day he is struck [by] his conscience and start giving the orders to the police to stop the killings,” de Lima told CNN International.
The former secretary of Justice said she was certain that an order from Duterte would definitely put a stop to the killings.
“If he is serious and if he is sincere in upholding the Constitution and upholding the laws, then he should, he should stop the killings or he should order those killings to stop,” the senator said.
In 2009, de Lima, then commissioner of the of the human rights agency, investigated the existence of Davao Death Squad (DDS), a group believed to be responsible for the prevalence of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in Davao City. DDS was allegedly headed by Duterte.
As former chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, the lawmaker also led investigations into the EJKs in relation to the present administration’s war on drugs.
Meanwhile de Lima explained she continues her fight against EJKs because the killings have not been stopped.
To date, 5,882 people have been killed since Duterte sat as President in June, the national police reported.
“So since killings continue, I have to continue criticizing it and calling for the end of those killings because that is totally unacceptable in the name of the so-called war on drugs,” she stressed adding that killing crime suspects is not the solution.
De Lima also hoped that Filipinos would appeal for end to EJKs.
“We Filipinos are God-fearing because we are a Catholic country, and therefore, we all know that killing is bad, killing is a sin, killing is against the law of both men and the law of God,” de Lima ended./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
