‘Little progress’ in prosecuting human rights offenders in PHL —US report

By ANNA FELICIA BAJO, GMA News, Mar 4, 2017

Human rights groups noted little progress in implementing and enforcing reforms aimed at improving investigations and prosecutions of suspected human rights violations, the US State Department said in a report on Saturday.

The 2016 Human Rights Practices report cited that government mechanisms to investigate abuse and corruption in the Philippines remained largely ineffective.

“The 168,000-member PNP’s (Philippine National Police) institutional deficiencies and the public perception that corruption was endemic within the force continued,” the report said.

The police force was criticized by domestic and international human rights groups for Operation Double Barrel, its expanded anti-illegal drug campaign, which was recently terminated by President Rodrigo Duterte due to some policemen’s involvement in the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo.

Jee’s killing had been labeled as “toknap” or “tokhang for kidnap” coined from the PNP’s Project Tokhang, where homes of suspected drug personalities were visited by the authorities to convince them to stop using or peddling illegal drugs.

The US State Department said that between January 1 and September 26 of 2016, the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service opened 709 internal investigations out of 940 reported police killings.

“Between January and August, the PNP opened 12 administrative cases alleging grave misconduct involving 19 personnel,” it added.

However, as of late September, no administrative or criminal charges were filed against policemen, the report said.

Vigilante Killings

The US State Department said killings allegedly undertaken by vigilantes, security forces, and insurgents remained the country’s most significant human rights problems.

This showed disregard for human rights and a weak criminal justice system, notable for slow court procedures, weak prosecutions, and poor cooperation between police and investigators, the report said.

“The government investigated a limited number of reported human rights abuses, including abuses by its own forces, paramilitaries, and insurgent and terrorist groups,” it said.

“Concerns about police impunity increased significantly as few administrative or criminal charges were filed against PNP officers following the sharp increase in police killings,” it added.

The report noted the more than 2,000 drug suspects killed by the police under Operation Double Barrel and the at least 4,000 drug-related vigilante-style killings.

Less rights desk officers

Meanwhile, the report said staffing of the PNP’s network of human rights desk officers at the national, regional, provincial and municipal level went down from 2,488 to 1,808.

The US State Department’s report also cited alleged human rights abuses involving the military.

“From January through August, the office identified and investigated six reported incidents, including homicide (one), torture (two), illegal detention and abuse of authority (one), violence against women and children (one), and arbitrary interference (one),” it said.

“As of August, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) had settled the homicide case when the victim’s family agreed not to pursue charges; the torture investigation was closed with the dishonorable discharge of one individual from the AFP. Four cases remained pending,” it added.

Witness Protection

In relation to the slow prosecution of violations against humanity, the report noted that some potential witnesses of human rights violations failed to get protection from the Department of Justice.

This was due to alleged “inadequate funding or procedural delays or failed to step forward because of doubts about the program’s effectiveness.”

The Commission on Human Rights, on the other hand, has a “smaller witness protection program” that was often overburdened by witnesses of killings in the war against illegal drugs.

The US State Department also cited the lack of witnesses to cooperate in the pursuit against police abuse. —ALG, GMA News

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