Sen. Leila M. de Lima has called on the administration to immediately address the blatant defects in the implementation of the “Double Barrel Project.”
De Lima intended to put a stop to the unabated spate of extrajudicial killings and summary executions in the country.
In a statement, De Lima said the government should heed the eight-point recommendations contained in the “Alternate Report” submitted by the Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC) to the United Nations Human Rights Council for its 3rd Cycle of 27th Session.
“The government should take heed of these recommendations after its so-called ‘war on drugs’ has been assessed and evaluated to have failed in addressing extrajudicial and summary killings in the country,” she said.
In its Alternate Report released last Oct. 14, AHRC noted that the administration failed in addressing extrajudicial and summary killings because it was more concerned on “winning the war on drugs, rather than investigating and preventing these killings.”
It also noted several defects in the implementation of the “Double Barrel Project” which, as of last Sept. 15, claimed the lives of 986 since June 30, including innocent individuals, including children, treated as “collateral damage” in the anti-drive campaign.
Recent official figures however showed that, as of last Oct. 10, about 3,844 people have died since the government’s war against drugs was launched last July 1, of whom 1,550 died in police operations while 2,294 in extrajudicial or vigilante-style killings.
De Lima said the defects of the “Double Barrel Project” should be corrected to avoid further violations of the constitutionally-protected human rights against taking of life, transgression of due process and the presumption of innocence of criminal suspects.
“The rash of extrajudicial and summary killings has become a serious concern not only domestically but also internationally. We cannot claim success in the government’s war against drugs if there are innocent individuals who are being summarily killed or those apprehended were not accorded due process of the law,” she stressed.
The former justice secretary has earlier filed Senate Bill No. 1197 which seeks to define extrajudicial killings and imposing penalties of life imprisonment without parole for any public officer, person in authority, agency of a person in authority or private individual who would be found guilty of extrajudicial killing.
Under SB 1197, the local chief executive and chief of police shall also be presumed administratively negligent when there is a notable increase of extrajudicial killing cases within their area of jurisdiction, except in conflict-stricken communities.
De Lima also proposed the creation of an Inter-Agency Council Against Extrajudicial Killings (Anti-EJK Council) to address institutional barriers to efficient, independent and impartial investigation of extrajudicial killings among concerned government agencies.
The proposed Anti-EJK Council shall coordinate with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and Commission on Human Rights (CHR), to adhere to minimum standards in the conduct of regular police intervention operations, such as but not limited to arrest, raid, search and seizure.