MANILA, Philippines — Human rights advocate group Karapatan Wednesday slammed Philippine National Police chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa's refusal to release information on police operations against illegal drugs.
In a press statement, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said Dela Rosa's refusal to release the police data is “a disgraceful attempt to escape accountability.”
“Releasing information on the drug war would indeed endanger cops, in the sense that they will be legally prosecuted and made accountable for their murder spree in urban poor communities,” Palabay said.
Palabay made the statement, after Dela Rosa, in a press conference on Monday, aired his objection to the Supreme Court's order to the government to submit police records of more than 3,000 deaths in connection with the administration's war on drugs.
Dela Rosa said releasing information on the police operations against illegal drugs might endanger the policemen and their relatives.
Solicitor General Jose Calida had earlier appealed to the SC to reconsider its order, saying that the data being requested by the high tribunal are very “sensitive” and that their release might affect national security.
“The production of documents required involve information and other sensitive matters that in the long run will have an undeniable effect on national security,” Calida said.
But for Karapatan, the government's refusal to provide data on the police operations is a way of tolerating the policemen's alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses in connection with the war on drugs.
“Hiding behind the ambiguous and arbitrary keyword of ‘national security,’ police impunity has been blatantly tolerated by the Duterte regime,” Palabay said.
“The basic and simple fact of the matter is that releasing this information will jumpstart the independent investigation on the PNP’s conduct in the war on drugs. Clearly, however steadfast the PNP may be in claiming that the 3,000 deaths were all cases of ‘self-defense,’ closer scrutiny may and will reveal deliberate rights abuses done at the expense of the poor’s right to due process,” she added.