The Philippine National Police in Negros Oriental has reiterated that there are no extrajudicial killings here, especially those involving suspected drug personalities that were shot dead at the height of the government’s anti-illegal drugs war.
Acting PNP provincial director Sr. Supt. Henry Biñas in an interview clarified that the term “extrajudicial killing” generally is defined as an agent of the state who perpetrates a crime in the absence of a court sanction or judicial proceeding.
Biñas, who is also a lawyer, said that the PNP under his leadership does not consider the deaths of suspected drug personalities in the province during the past eight months under the Duterte administration as EJKs.
While there may be some cases where the drug suspects were killed by unidentified persons, the provincial director said that they label these as “deaths under investigation” or DUI.
These are the cases where suspected drug pushers are killed outside of a legitimate operation, he explained.
While the victims are suspected drug personalities, they could have been shot dead for other motives, Binas further explained.
According to Biñas, a legitimate police operation would mean, for instance, the service of a search warrant, a warrant of arrest, or a buy-bust operation, during which the subject personality would resist arrest and engage the police operatives in a firefight, thus risking the lives of the latter.
Since July of last year, when President Duterte launched his deadly war against illegal drugs, about six shooting incidents that led to the deaths of suspected drug pushers were recorded in Negros Oriental to date, he said.
Two cases were in Canlaon City, and one each in Vallehermoso, Guihulngan City, and Dumaguete City.
At least 19 other fatal shooting incidents involving drug suspects were recorded during the same period but Sr. Supt. Biñas clarified that the motives for the killings may not necessarily be drug-related.
To avoid being accused of bias and whitewash in the PNP organization, he recommends that relatives and families of those killed for their alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade file their complaints with other agencies such as the Commission on Human Rights and the National Bureau of Investigation.
Meanwhile, the CHR in Negros Oriental is saying that a purported extra-judicial killing incident is hard to prove in court and sometimes can hardly reach trial proper, being dismissed immediately at the level of the prosecutor’s office.
CHR-Negros Oriental special investigator and chief Dr. Jesus Cañete, disclosed Thursday that this is so because potential witnesses tend to withdraw and thus the complaints would not prosper.
He said his office has received at least 16 or 17 reported cases of perceived EJKs but they are still under investigation, but with little hope of succeeding in the absence of witnesses.
Cañete points out that investigating and prosecuting potential EJK cases is not just the responsibility of the CHR but also that of the PNP, the courts and the judiciary.
The CHR is only a recommendatory body based on its investigation findings as it does not have quasi-judicial powers, he added. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
