Philippines: Davao mayor sanctions extra-judicial killing of suspected criminals.

The findings of Human Rights Watch are rather startling. No doubt the practice is popular among many in the city of Davao especially those hit by crime. Probably opponents of the mayor as well as critics of the police could also become victims of the practice. Of course Arroyo keeps quiet about it all and even uses Duterte as an advisor on peace and order!


Duterte’s tacit support to death squads alarms US human rights group
By Michaela P. del Callar and Jason Faustino
04/08/2009
The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday accused Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of giving “tacit support” to death squads behind the killing of 800 people in the city over the past decade, monstrous squads that allegedly grew under the aegis of city officials and local police.
HRW made the accusation after it found a “pattern of official complicity” and “at times direct involvement of government officials and members of the police in killings” that were carried out by death squads operating in Davao City, HRW deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson told a press briefing.
“The words and actions of long-time Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte...indicate his support for the targeted killing of criminal suspects,” HRW said in a study of vigilante murders which took place between 1998 and 2008. It added that Duterte “continues to deny the undeniable” by refusing to investigate the killings.
At a media briefing in San Juan City, HRW executive director
Kenneth Roth reported that “the hundreds of targeted killings in Davao City in recent years are clearly not random events but the result of planned hits by a death squad involving police officers and local officials.”
“The police consistently fail to bring the perpetrators to justice, while the local government cheers from the sidelines,” Roth added.
While there was no “hard evidence” linking Duterte to the murders, Roth quoted previous statements by Duterte where he said criminals in Davao “are a legitimate target of assassination.” He also cited Duterte’s earlier practice of reading out names of suspected criminals over the radio to warn them.
Duterte has not yet responded to the allegations, although he had previously denied any involvement with the vigilantes.
In its 103-page report released yesterday, “You Can Die Any Time: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao,” HRW detailed the involvement of police and local government officials in targeted killings of alleged drug dealers and petty criminals, and street children.
The HRW criticized the Arroyo government for “largely turn(ing) a blind eye to the killing spree in Davao City and elsewhere” and for the “lack of any effort by the authorities to investigate the killings and to bring those responsible to justice.”
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had repeatedly denied allegations of state-sponsored killings in the city. He had made numerous statements justifying the killing of suspected criminals as having a deterrent effect against crimes. Local security officials had also denied involvement of their men in the killings.
But the HRW report concluded that “at least some police officers and barangay officials are either involved or complicit in death squad killings,” saying that “such killings continue and the perpetrators enjoy impunity largely because of the tolerance of, and in some cases, outright support from local authorities.”
The Philippine National Police, HRW noticed, has not sought to confront the problem while the inaction of the national institutions responsible for accountability, namely the Department of Justice, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Commission on Human Rights, “has fueled widespread impunity.”
Citing accounts from insiders, HRW said most members of the Davao Death Squad are “either former communist New People’s Army insurgents who surrendered to the government or young men who themselves were death squad targets and joined the group to avoid being killed.”
Hired guns earn from P5000 to as high as P100,000, the report said.
The killers’ “handlers” are “usually police officers or ex-police officers” who provide them with “training, weapons and ammunition, motorcycles, and information on the targets,” HRW said.
The report said firearms issued to Davao death squad vigilantes were mostly .45-caliber handguns, a weapon commonly used by the police.
HRW has urged the Philippine government to investigate the proliferation of “death squads” responsible for hundreds of targeted killings in Davao City and other cities on the southeastern island of Mindanao.
“The number of victims of targeted killings in Davao City has steadily increased in the past decade. From two reported cases in 1998, the number rose to 98 in 2003, and 124 in 2008. In 2009, 33 targeted killings were reported in January alone,” the report said.
On March 30 and 31, 2009, the Commission on Human Rights held the first-ever public hearing on death squads in Davao City.
“Human Rights Watch found a pattern to the killings. The assailants usually arrive in twos or threes on a motorcycle without a license plate; they wear baseball caps and buttoned shirts or jackets, apparently to conceal their weapons, and they shoot or stab their victim without warning, often in broad daylight with little regard for those witnessing the crime,” the report said.
Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the police arrived at the scene long after the assailants had left, even if the nearest police station was just a stone’s throw from the crime scene.
Police often failed to collect obvious evidence such as spent bullet casings, or to question witnesses or suspects, but instead pressured the families of victims to identify the killers, it said.
Families that provided information to the police, such as names of potential suspects and witnesses, said the police either failed to follow up on such leads or had not informed the family if they had done so.
In many cases, witnesses were also afraid to come forward with information, as they believed they could become targets by doing so, HRW said.
While police blamed the lack of successful investigations on a lack of witnesses, the group said police or other institutions “should create credible protection mechanisms so witnesses will report death squad killings to the authorities.”
However, it lamented that “no protection mechanism can be fully successful so long as police are involved in the killings.”
HRW also investigated a number of cases in which those killed were seemingly unintended targets, including victims of mistaken identity.
Some Davao City residents also expressed belief that some death squad members had become guns-for-hire, making everyone a potential target, HRW said.
In recent years, reports of targeted killings have expanded beyond Davao City to other cities in Mindanao, and to Cebu City, the Philippines’ second-largest metropolis. Mayors and city officials in several of these cities have made statements similar to Duterte’s, justifying killings in their own cities.
“The administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has largely ignored the targeted killings in Davao City and elsewhere. In fact, in 2003, Duterte became Arroyo’s consultant on peace and order, indicating her approval of his ‘tough-on-crime’ approach that encourages violations of law,” HRW said.
The group has called on the Philippine government to “publicly denounce extra-judicial killings and local anti-crime campaigns that promote or encourage the unlawful use of force, and to take all necessary action to end the extra-judicial killing of suspected criminals and street children, beginning in Davao City.”
“Arroyo has been taking security advice from someone who openly advocates murder to bring peace and prosperity,” HRW said. “But this needs to stop. The Arroyo government should send a clear message to local officials and the police that the killings of petty criminals, drug users, and street children will not be tolerated.”