HRW: Promotion of police officers sacked after Kian slay insult drug war victims
MANILA, Philippines — Human Rights Watch slammed the promotions of senior police officers who, it said, supervised units implicated in scores of killings linked to the government’s ferocious war on drugs.
HRW said the promotions of Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna—sacked police chief of Caloocan City—as Bulacan province’s top cop and Chief Supt. Roberto Fajardo—sacked chief of Northern Police District, which includes Caloocan City—as chief of the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol insult drug war victims.
“The high-level promotions of two senior police officers who oversaw of the drug war’s bloodiest locales are a cruel affront to the families of victims,” the rights group said Friday.
The move underscores the importance of an International Criminal Court preliminary examination into the killings and the need for a parallel United Nations probe to ensure accountability for those deaths, HRW added.
Bersaluna and Fajardo were both sacked after cops under them killed 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos in August last year. The former NPD chief even defended the actions of the police, accusing the schoolboy of being a drug runner.
Caloocan police also allegedly killed 14-year-old Reynaldo De Guzman and 19-year-old Carl Arnaiz.
The deaths of the three teenagers fueled outrage against President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-narcotics campaign.
“Delos Santos and De Guzman were just two of dozens of children killed by the police and their agents in the Philippines as part of Duterte’s nearly two-year anti-drug campaign. Senior police officials have dismissed the deaths of children as ‘collateral damage’ in the drug war,” HRW said.
Last January, The Department of Justice indicted three members of the Caloocan City police for the murder of Delos Santos.
DOJ last month re-filed the double murder case of Arnaiz and De Guzman against two cops.
However, neither Bersaluna nor Fajardo have been charged in connection with the killings of the three teenagers.
Reuters wins Pulitzers, the most prestigious awards in American journalism, in international reporting for its story on the methods of police killing squads in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and for feature photography documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
In covering the deadly drug war in the Philippines, Reuters reporters Clare Baldwin, Andrew R.C. Marshall and Manuel Mogato "demonstrated how police in the president’s 'drug war' have killed with impunity and consistently been shielded from prosecution," Reuters Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler says.
Sen. Francis Tolentino says he has agreed to serve as legal counsel for Sen. Bato dela Rosa before the International Criminal Court. — Xave Gregorio
Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa says he is “not worried” of the ICC’s resumption of investigation into the brutal war on drugs.
The Commission on Human Rights welcomes the verdict of a Caloocan court that convicted police officer Jeffrey Perez of torture and planting of evidence in the killings of teenagers Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
"The Commission hopes that more cases similar to Carl and Kulot will reach the courts," the government agency says in a statement.
"We hope that more eye witnesses will step forth and feel encouraged to help progress the thousands of drug-related killings still pending investigations and trials," it adds.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' work on the Philippines "is far from done" as victims of the bloody "war on drugs" continue to seek accountability and justice, the Human Rights Watch says.
"The Human Rights Council should adopt OHCHR’s recommendation that the high commissioner’s office continue to monitor and regularly report on the country’s rights situation," Carlos Conde, the senior researcher for Asia Division of the HRW, says in a statement.
"There’s no short-term solution to making real progress on accountability and providing justice for people in the Philippines," he adds.
Gabriela Women's Party supports the request of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan to resume probe on President Duterte's drug war killings. — The STAR/Sheila Crisostomo
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