A CONGRESSMAN on Monday pushed to urgently pass a measure institutionalizing a health- and human rights-based anti-drug policy to prevent the state from undertaking another deadly drug war, as seen at the time of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
In a statement, Party-list Rep. Percival V. Cendaña said passing the bill would help protect civilians from “state-sanctioned violence” to curb the drug trade.
“We need this ‘Kian Bill’ so that innocents won’t be victimized. We need to ban Tokhang-style operations, illegal police operations, unlawful raids, and other terror-inducing and cruel methods [in addressing the drug problem],” he said in mixed English and Filipino, referring to House Bill No. 11004.
Mr. Cendaña named the measure after Kian Loyd de los Santos, a teenager murdered during an anti-drug sting in 2017.
The Philippine government estimated that more than 6,000 people died under Mr. Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, according to a Facebook infographic published in June 2022 by RealNumbersPH, which is operated by the inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs. Human rights groups, however, claim that the death toll could be as high as 30,000.
Mr. Duterte’s anti-drug campaign was marred by alleged gross human rights abuses due to the spate of vigilante-style extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of drug users and peddlers, reportedly carried out by the police and unknown assailants.
In 2021, the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an investigation into the campaign after criticisms that Mr. Duterte’s government had systematically murdered drug suspects in police raids.
The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in 2018, which took effect a year later.
In the same statement, human rights lawyer Jose Manuel “Chel” I. Diokno urged the Justice department to investigate Senator Ronald “Bato” M. dela Rosa’s role as police chief during the first two years of the drug war.
“The DoJ (Department of Justice) must carefully scrutinize Senator Bato’s role in this dark chapter of our history,” he said. “As the chief architect of Tokhang, his issuance of CMC 16-2016, calling for the neutralization of drug suspects, reflects his complicity, further reinforced by Duterte’s public admission of sanctioning these killings.”
The office of Mr. Dela Rosa did not immediately respond to a Viber message seeking comment.
The DoJ created a task force last week to investigate alleged EJKs under the previous administration. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
