Death squads scared me too, after Mayor Duterte’s term

Last March, the Commission on Human Rights headed by Chairman Leila de Lima held three days of public hearings on extrajudicial killings in Davao City.

Before the hearing started, Bayan Muna’s Joel Virador expressed caution about how successful the commission would be in getting at the truth. Father Amado Picardal of the Coalition Against Summary Executions, reported MindaNews, was frankly doubtful. He could not be sure “if witnesses would come out in the open to testify about the killings in front of authorities whom everyone suspects of tolerating or supporting these.”

Chairman de Lima had announced earlier that Mayor Rodrigo Duterte himself would be among those to be invited to answer questions at the hearing.

The commission’s final report is still being awaited.

But PREDA (Peoples Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance) Foundation Inc. in February, issued its own report on the so-called Davao Death Squads. You can read it in PDF format by just Googling PREDA to get to foundation’s website.

PREDA’s founder and executive director is Fr. Shay Cullen, the brave and caring Columban priest whose work has rescued hundreds—thousands maybe—of abused children and women.

Below is his column on the scary thing about Davao City, the “Death Squads.”

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Death squads scared me too

The energetic and outspoken Philippine Commissioner on Human Rights Leila de Lima, is a breath of fresh air in a putrid stench-filled atmosphere where the silence of consent by a majority of citizens has allowed the execution of as many as 814 people including 73 children who are hapless innocent victims of the Davao Death Squads. She is conducting a public inquiry into this most atrocious of situation. “What is most alarming, she declared, is the growing culture or mentality of acceptance of the executions . . . this is worse than apathy and indifference.”

There are brave and courageous people in Davao, defenders of the human rights and children who have protested the killings for many years but they have received warnings and death threats and some of them have been assassinated on the street.

 Reportedly, armed men dressed in black, with hand-held radios would pull up at a market place, walk though the stalls, as vendors and customers fled, find the street kids sleeping and shoot them point blank in the head. All one has to do to get someone killed in Davao is to denounce them of drug pushing or any crime. No arrest, charge or trial is necessary. It is “executioners on call” for those with grudges and complaints against others. But the civil and church authorities have been mostly silent about this murder machine that has carried on its bloody killings and murders since 1998. A series of terrible crimes that have gone on unabated and unpunished. Commissioner de Lima is giving hope to the families of victims and those marked for summary execution.

It was October 27, 1999, when I received a legal notice that Mayor Benjamin de Guzman of Davao City had filed a libel charge against me because of my letter writing appeal to defenders of human rights in several countries. I asked them to join the Preda Foundation’s letter writing campaign to end the killings of street children and other innocent people. Hundreds reportedly responded and Mayor de Guzman was very upset. He claimed in his legal complaint that I had pointed him as being responsible for the Davao Death Squads. In fact, I did no such thing but pointed out that as mayor, he had the command responsibility to see the citizens were protected and not summarily executed. I soon received warnings and threats myself. My appeal to the Regional Prosecutor to dismiss the charges as unfounded and baseless was denied. I appealed to the Department of Justice but received no answer. It was a scary time when I had to go to Davao to be arraigned in court and perhaps be refused bail, jailed and at risk of assassination myself.

Former Mayor de Guzman claimed that the death squads were operating before he won the elections and replaced then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. After the reelection of Rodrigo Duterte, a few years later, the summary executions continued unabated until the present. Mayor Duterte has denied any connection to the killings however he has been quoted by media as saying that he wanted to instill fear. “If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination.” For anyone that showed any resistance, Duterte also said he would order the police to “shoot you and aim for your head to make sure that you are dead.” Commissioner de Lima told the media that her investigators and researchers had uncovered a pattern of killings. She said that since 1998, the victims had included 185 young adults and 45 minors. “Children are being executed.”

“Nowhere in the world, nowhere in the human race, is the killing of minors acceptable,” de Lima said. Duterte offered to give up control of the Davao police force and resigned from the National Police Commission as charges from the international group Human Rights Watch, said he was linked to the Davao Death Squads. Two senators and government officials say legally he can’t do that and they stand by him. None of the Mayors de Guzman or Duterte may never be charged in the Philippines but witnesses will be found that can safely testify to the International Criminal Court.–Father Shay Cullen, Manila Times columnist