EDITORIAL - Any probe must have a clear reason

It is not clear if the Commission on Human Rights is sincerely trying to be useful or is just allowing itself, wittingly or unwittingly, to be used. What is abundantly clear is that CHR chairman Chito Gascon seems to have gotten overly excited very belatedly by the claim of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that he has killed so many people he could not even remember how many.

It is, of course, the mandate of the CHR to investigate extrajudicial killings. What surprises is why it intends to investigate only now when Duterte has been making his claims for years. To be fair, it is the killings that are important, not when they are investigated. But it is just as fair and important for CHR to explain its timing because for an investigation it should done long ago to be made so close to an election where Duterte is a leading contender is, indeed, suspicious.

Talks are already rife about a plot that begins with the disqualification of Grace Poe, the arrest and detention of Jejomar Binay, and the arrest and detention as well of Duterte, leaving in the field only Mar Roxas as the remaining viable contender, considering that Miriam Santiago is grappling with health issues. If that happens, trouble could erupt, and nobody wants that to happen.

To prevent that from happening, everyone must do his part, including Gascon and his CHR. Again, no one is preventing the CHR from doing its job. But it must be absolutely certain that the job it is about to do is based on and warranted by evidence and not just on some flimsy flight of fancy inspired by, of all people, Duterte himself. The CHR must recognize that once the probe flies, it becomes so easy to hijack, and taken to where this nation does not want to be.

Among the things the CHR needs to consider first is the distinction between what Gascon himself thinks Duterte admitted and what Duterte actually only claimed. The CHR must take note of the fact, which is easily verifiable, that despite all the erroneous news stories on the issue, Duterte never really admitted to killing any one specific person. He only claimed to have killed people by the hundreds.

The CHR is a serious agency with a serious mission. It cannot allow itself to be baited and mesmerized by the fantastic. Just because Duterte claimed anything does not mean it is true. Indeed, the fact that he claimed to have killed people by the hundreds should have sent red flags in similar hundreds flying. The CHR should know such figures, dispensed without the slightest hesitation, could just be as hyperbolic as the act itself.

Before Gascon proceeds, it might do well to ask himself first a few basic questions. Who did Duterte kill? How did he kill them and when? Have any bodies been found? More importantly, has anyone reported a lost friend or relative? Isn't it strange that in all of the hundreds of killings Duterte claimed to have perpetuated, not a single soul has surfaced to complain? Perhaps Gascon should just wait until Duterte slaps Roxas and Roxas slaps back. Then he can have his hands full investigating.