PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar yesterday downplayed the results of a Commission on Human Rights investigation that established abuses committed by police in the war against illegal drugs.
Eleazar said the PNP respects the probe conducted by the CHR “as this task falls under its constitutional mandate” but added: “The main reason behind the investigation conducted by the CHR is the same reason why we coordinated with the Department of Justice for the review of the police operations relating to the campaign against illegal drugs.”
The DOJ, in coordination with the PNP, began a review of the war on drugs as early as last year though it was only last June when the PNP turned over dozens of cases where policemen were found to be administratively liable.
Last month, the DOJ referred to the NBI 52 cases involving 154 policemen for case buildup and filing of criminal complaints. The PNP is helping the NBI in the conduct of the probe.
The CHR looked into 579 drug-related incidents in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Calabarzon because these areas registered the highest number of drug-related deaths from 2016 to February 2020.
CHR Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gan said some of the suspects killed were incapable of firing a shot at policemen.
“There are also other patterns of discrepancies based on eyewitness accounts during drug operations by law enforcers, including: that the alleged operations might have not actually been conducted; that alleged ‘nanlaban’ victims could not have initiated a shootout; that some victims were said to be already under police custody when they were killed,” Gana said in a statement.
Eleazar assured the public that the PNP also wants to know the truth “because these allegations of human rights and extra-judicial killings that have been hounding us in more than five years have resulted in sweeping generalization that all our operations against illegal drugs are tainted with abuses.”
Yesterday, the NBI and the PNP signed a Memorandum of Agreement formalizing closer cooperation in, and joint evaluation of, the government’s anti-illegal drug operations.
