‘Davao Death squad exists’

Int’l watchdog says crime rate increasing faster than population
 
AN international human rights watchdog on Tuesday directly linked the Davao City killings to police and local officials saying that these officials are providing the training and armaments needed by the Davao Death Squad.

New York-based Human Rights Watch also asked President Gloria Arroyo to order the Ombudsman and the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct an inquiry and report promptly and publicly on the involvement of police officers and local officials in the vigilante-style of killings in Davao City against alleged drug dealers, petty criminals and street children.

“The hundreds of targeted killings in Davao City in recent years are clearly not random events but the result of planned hits by a ‘death squad’ that involves police officers and local officials,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of the HRW, during the launching of their report entitled “You Can Die Any Time: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao” at Crowne Plaza in Quezon City.

The 103-page details the involvement of police and local government officials in targeted killings of alleged drug dealers and criminals, street children, and others, and describes the lack of any effort by the authorities to investigate the killings and bring those responsible to justice.

“We believe that this report conclusively shows that the Davao Death Squad does exist,” Roth said in a press conference.

“The police consistently fail to bring the perpetrators to justice, while the local government cheers from the sidelines,” Roth added.

The report, authored by Anna Neistat and Kay Seok, includes their interview with some persons that have knowledge of the make-up, structure and operation of the so-called Davao Death Squad.

Roth said the Human Rights Watch investigated 28 cases of targeted killings, conducting more than 50 interviews with victims’ families, witnesses, lawyers, journalists, human rights advocates and government officials in Davao City and even in General Santos City, and Digos City.

Number of victims increasing

The Report said the number of victims of targeted killings in Davao City has steadily increased in the past decade.

From two reported cases in 1998, the number rose from 98 in 2003 to 124 in 2008. This year, 33 killings were reported in January.

The report said quoting statistics provided by the Philippine National Police, the number of annual crime incidents in Davao City has increased by 219 percent in the last decade.

“While the city’s population rose only by 29 percent. An increasing number of death squad killings appear to have made crime rates worse in Davao. Crime is accelerating 10 times faster than the population,” Roth said.

Pattern to the killings

Human Rights Watch said they found a pattern to the killings in Davao City. The assailants usually arrive in twos or threes on a motorcycle without a license plate; they wear baseball caps and buttoned shirts or jackets, apparently to conceal their weapons, and they shoot or stab their victim without war­­­n­­ing, often in broad daylight with little regard for those witnessing the crime.

According to “death squad insiders,” members are mostly either former communist New People’s Army insurgents or young men who themselves were death squad targets who joined the group to avoid being killed.

Their handlers, usually policemen or former policemen, provide them with training, weapons and ammunition, motorcycles, and information about targets, these people said.

Death squad members often use .45-caliber handguns, a weapon commonly used by the police but prohibitively expensive for gang members and common criminals.

Insiders told Human Rights Watch that handlers obtain information about their targets from the police or barangay officials, who compile lists of those engaged in criminal activities. Local police stations are then notified in advance to ensure that police officers would go slow in responding to death squad killings.

In many cases, witnesses are also afraid to come forward with information, as they believe they could become targets by doing so, Roth said.

“While police blame the lack of successful investigations on the lack of witnesses, police or other institutions should put the witnesses into the witness protection program to protect them,” Roth said.

CHR inquiry

The non-profit organization also asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to identify the CHR officials in Mindanao who have failed to respond appropriately to petitions or complaints from families of victims of targeted killings and reprimand them in accordance with the law.

CHR chairperson Leila de Lima, who attended the launching of the report, considered the report an “abundant source of information with raw facts and leads.”

De Lima wishes that the CHR investigators might access the same insiders that HRW were able to interview.

She added that the Commission en banc would go back to Davao City on April 17 for another public inquiry where a barangay official will be summoned.

Duterte denial

Roth said the longtime mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte, continue to deny his involvement in the target killings, while tolerating said killings by not doing anything to stop the so called Davao Death Squad.

Roth said the Davao Death Squad is an arbitrary form of government brutality.

“It [Davao Death Squad] is the last thing the Philippines needs to strengthen the security,” Roth stressed.

Human Rights Watch said the Philippine government and local authorities in Davao City and other cities should urgently take measures to stop the killings, hold perpetrators accountable, and bring justice to the victims’ families.

“If Human Rights Watch, who is not from the Philippines can do something like this [report] in 2 weeks, local police and officials can do better than this,” Roth said. –Ira Karen Apanay, Reporter, Manila Times