CHR asks Davao execs to help unravel mystery of vigilante killings

The newly formed Task Force DDS (DDS being an acronym for Davao Death Squads) is having a hard time unraveling the mystery behind the series of unexplained killings largely attributed to death squads operating in Davao City and suburban areas.

Reason: Davao City officials continue to turn a blind eye on vigilante-style killings despite reports by the United Nations and some international human rights watchdogs on the existence of such death squads. The reports also claimed the death squads had the tacit approval of local officials and the city police hierarchy.

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairman Leila de Lima said these “concerned officials are still in the state of denial on what’s really happening in Davao” as she lashed out at them for pretending not to notice the alarming rate of vigilante-style killings in Davao areas.

She then urged them to cooperate with the CHR-led Task Force Davao Death Squads to put an end to the killings. The Task Force DDS had its first meeting last week, its first step toward unraveling the mystery behind the vigilante-style killings that continue to grip Dabawenos in fear.

“Your cooperation to shed light on the vigilante-style killings perpetrated by the Davao Death Squads in the southern part of the country drives us even more to put an end to these senseless loss of lives especially involving minors,” De Lima told the officials representing their agencies to the Task Force DDS.

At least 538 persons have been killed in Davao City since 1998, some of them children or minors. Reports, both confirmed and unconfirmed, claim that the victims were suspected of committing petty crimes such as drug use, drug pushing or petty thievery.

The phenomenon of death-squad killings was covered by Prof. Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Execution during his visit to the Philippines in February 2007. At that time, he already noted that death squad killings in Davao were far from being reduced and expressed alarm over the increase in the number of people being killed over the years.

Alston even said children suspected of picking pockets should not be subject to executions. It was also the subject of a special report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch that was released April of this year.

“Davao Death Squad is no laughing matter and we maintain that it exists. Our priority now is witness protection for those who have cooperated and still to cooperate,” De Lima said.

Members of the DDS Task Force are the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Department of National Defense (DND), Human Rights Affairs Office of both the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The idea of forming the DDS Task Force came from PNP Chief Jesus Versoza sometime last March when he appeared in the first of the CHR public hearings looking into reports on the so-called death squads operating in Davao City. –Michaela del Callar, Daily Tribune