Stonewalling DOJ’s drug war deaths report: Rappler sounds the alarm

IN THE fifth year of the Duterte presidency, media have reported less on the “war on drugs” even as drug-related killings continued. But Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra made headlines when he told reporters in a text message on January 11 that the DOJ had completed the initial report on its investigation on the deaths associated with the controversial policy. 

Media also revealed that the president received a copy of the confidential report last December 29. But there has only been silence about what it contains.

The January reports of the media did not provide sufficient background on the investigation and what drove the DOJ to do it.  They did not remind the public that there is an international clamor to investigate the deaths in the “drug war.” Much of the coverage also failed to mention what agencies were involved in the process and had received copies of the report. 

On the same day as Guevarra’s announcement, media reported the response of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), whIch called out the administration for excluding the commission from the inter-agency panel tasked to look into the  “drug war” deaths. News reports recalled that in June 2020, the DOJ had assured the UN Human Rights Council that it would include CHR in the investigation. As “an independent monitoring body,” the commission would legitimize the administration’s protesting the need for an international investigation of the conduct of its anti-illegal drugs policy. But CHR was still excluded from the review panel.

While media did pick up the breaking story, they did little to look into the issues that would have made their reports meaningful. Much of the coverage failed to provide the context of how the Duterte administration has effectively sidelined the CHR and its work, preventing the body from fulfilling its constitutional mandate. Neither have most of the media followed up with the Palace on when it intends to make public the contents of the report.

CMFR monitored reports from the three major Manila broadsheets (Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Philippine Star); four primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, CNN Philippines’ News Night, GMA-7’s 24 Oras and TV5’s Frontline Pilipinas); as well as selected news websites from January 11 to 18, 2021.

Much of the coverage was understandably online, although some newspapers reported on the subject in their inside pages.

Of the news organizations monitored, only Rappler reported  how the Duterte government continues to thwart CHR’s investigation into the “drug war” killings.

Stonewalled

Lian Buan’s report, published on January 16, took off from her own interview with Human Rights Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit on Rappler Talk which discussed the refusal of the Philippine National Police to provide the CHR the information it needs.

Citing the commission’s data, Buan reported that the commission was able to investigate 1,893 cases of the almost 8,000 police killings recorded by the PNP. Rappler noted that CHR obtained the data by “proactively investigating” without the help of PNP or any other government agency.

While the PNP has invoked “data privacy” to justify its refusal to share “drug war” data with the commission, Rappler pointed out that the Data Privacy Act states that privacy issues do not apply when information is used for “purposes of investigation.” The report stressed that CHR is an “investigative body” that can investigate and file legal complaints, much like the PNP and the NBI.

Call for probe

Rappler also recalled its 2019 analysis which  noted the “systematic gaps at the police and prosecutorial levels” which have left thousands of killings unsolved.

Rappler highlighted the lapses in the investigation of officers involved in the killings, citing the recent case of Police SMSgt. Jonel Nuezca, the off-duty cop who was videoed on mobile phones killing a mother and son over a dispute in a neighborhood in Tarlac. His record revealed that he had been involved in cases of homicide. And yet, he still remained in active duty.

Nuezca’s record also showed that he was demoted in October 2020 for an extortion case dating back to 2014. Rappler quoted Dumpit who said, “it took six years, that tells you already that the timeline is against those who seek justice and remedy.”

Buan ended her report with a discussion of the importance of local probes in determining whether the International Criminal Court can proceed with its own

Investigation on the drug-related deaths under the Duterte administration. According to Buan, if ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda decides that “the Philippines is either unable or unwilling to probe these cases on its own,” she can formally open an investigation phase.

Rappler has kept the “drug war” under close scrutiny. Other media outfits must follow suit in checking PNP narratives and those of other government agencies. The numbers cited by the police are numerous enough, even as they leave out thousands of cases still unexplained and categorized as “deaths under investigation.” PNP’s official count of drug-related deaths is nearly 8000, but human rights groups have included in their counts the deaths which the police have not resolved and the count was more than 20,000 in 2018.

In the last five years, the Duterte administration has dismissed the extent and serious implications of the killings, and described charges of gross human rights violations as false. The Supreme Court nevertheless instructed lawyers looking into “drug war” deaths on behalf of families of the victims to continue to do so, while international pressure has been brought to bear on the DOJ to pursue and complete its own investigation. The release of the DOJ findings has been delayed quite significantly, Journalists cannot just sit back and wait for the president to make up his mind when to reveal them.  They must press for the DOJ report’s  immediate release in behalf of the people’s right to know, the possibility that the killings constitute gross violations of the right to life and due process, and the consequent imperative for the perpetrators to be held accountable.