Expert asks: Is term 'extrajudicial killing' too technical — and is it the reason for lack of outcry?

Could there be something lost in translation in communicating the gravity of extrajudicial killings?

Speaking at the launch of the 2017 Salinan Conference: Translation and Translation Studies in Local and Global Contexts on March 1, Professor Jethro Tenorio of the Kagawaran ng Filipino of Ateneo De Manila University shared a humorous anecdote with the press.

A gay beauty contest was held near his residence and he chanced upon the crucial segment of the pageant.

"Tanong ng host: 'Sang-ayon ka ba sa judicial killing, o sa pagpatay sa mga taong hindi sumuko sa laban kontra-droga?'" he said.

The headlines have been saturated with the use of "extrajudicial killings" for months now and Tenorio said that it might be time to ask: Do people know what the phrase means?

"Baka hindi ito naiintindihan, dahil masyado itong teknikal," he posited, adding that the people might be confusing the "extra" in "extrajudicial" with the "extra" in "extra rice" or "extra shirt."

With this in mind, he speculated: "Baka kaya hindi tinututulan kasi hindi naiintindihan."

He expounded in an interview with GMA News Online.

"Hindi rin ako kasi babad sa batas...pero sa pag-unawa ko, kaya siya nilalagiyan ng 'extra,' ibig sabihin nasa labas ito ng proseso. Nagaganap itong pagpatay sa labas ng inaasahang tiyak na proseso. Kaya ito 'yong ibig sabihin ng 'extra' na 'yan," he said.

"Kung meron mang 'judicial killing', baka kapag na-approve na naman ang death penalty? Kasi ibig sabihin pinahintulutan na naman ng batas ang pagpatay," he added.

"Baka lumusot na pagsalin, ang 'extra' ay dagdag lang. Kaya rin talaga hindi rumerehistro sa kamalayan."

Subject of debate

Critics have decried the rising death toll in the drug war under President Rodrigo Duterte, with more than 8,000 reported deaths. Of these, more than 2,500 have been from police operations while others have been unsolved killings. But even referring to those as extrajudicial killings have been the subject of debate.

Former Court of Appeals Justices Ruben T. Reyes and Mariano C. Del Castillo, who subsequently became Supreme Court associate justices, have previously raised issues with the term in an old article on human rights.

"There is a need for a clear-cut definition of what ‘extrajudicial killing’ is, for homicide and murder are ‘extrajudicial killings’ too. The name is a misnomer since every killing, outside of the death penalty, is extrajudicial. Shouldn’t the crime be called a ‘political killing’ instead?" they wrote.

During a Senate hearing on the killings last year, Duterte ally Alan Peter Cayetano argued against the use of the term "extrajudicial killings" to describe drug war casualties, noting that the term was never used to describe the death of common criminals during the Aquino administration.

Jacqueline Ann C. De Guia of the Public Affairs and Strategic Communications Office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) acknowledges that there is "no singular, clear cut definition of what ‘extrajudicial killing’ means across sectors."

But the CHR has used the term to include "direct participation in committing the crime, as well as inaction to stop the continuing pattern of killings and failure to conduct a meaningful investigation of such incidents, which is construed as tolerance or acquiescence."

"Hence, it also speaks of neglect of duty. It remains to be a term understood differently by various sectors. For example, the security sector does not include vigilante killings as EJKs but calls them either as murder or homicide," she said.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, a staunch critic of the drug war, disagrees with the notion that using EJKs as a blanket term leads to confusion.

"Those who say that there is confusion on the definition of the term are the ones who are obfuscating the issue and the authorities' accountability for it," she said in an email exchange with GMA News Online.

"In the context of the country's bloody war on drugs, extrajudicial killing is the deliberate killing of a person as a form of punishment and deterrent (cardboard justice) outside of the regular constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees and due process for allegedly abusing and/or peddling illegal drugs," she added.

She nonetheless believes that there is "a strong need to institutionalize the definition of EJKs in our legal system to prevent certain individuals and groups from muddling the issue."

Government denial

Malacañang, for its part, has urged the public to note the difference between those killed in legitimate drug operations and drug-related extrajudicial killings. 

"The Philippine Government is firmly committed to upholding human rights. Vigilante or extrajudicial killings are unlawful and are therefore not sanctioned. These are not to be confused with the government’s war on illegal drugs, which is an urgent and critical domestic matter," Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement.

But the government has come under fire from groups saying that authorities are involved in the killings.

Human Rights Watch said its recent report on alleged extrajudicial killings point to a police role in many cases.

“In our report, we concluded that many of the so-called buy-bust killings by the police were actually executions, extrajudicial killings of suspects. And we found strong evidence that the police actually planted evidence including guns at the scene of these crimes to make these look like shootouts rather than killings,” HRW Emergencies Director Peter Bouckaert said.

For Hontiveros, describing the deaths as anything other than extrajudicial killings would be a disservice to victims.

"Many of the killings that happened as a result of the war on drugs were clearly extrajudicial in nature. Describing it with another term is to add insult to this grave injury and prevent people from exacting accountability for it,"  Hontiveros said.

In any case, the number of killings has not led to much public outcry — certainly not enough as Duterte has remained very popular.

For Tenorio, it may be time to revisit whether the term is being communicated properly.

"Napakahalaga ng pag-unawa para makalikha ng paninindigan," he said.

"Naniniwala ako na ang unang-unang hakbang talaga para makalikha ng paninindigan sa anumang venue, sa anumang platform — social media man 'yan o sa personal na talastasan — siyempre kailangan nauunawaan, 'di ba?" he added.

"Kung doon pa lang sa antas ng pag-unawa ay medyo naging malabnaw na ang pag-unawa na ito ng dahil sa usapin ng wika, napakahirap naman lumikha ng paninindigan. At kung hindi man, mas delikado pa nga, baka misinformed ang paninindigan." —BM/JST, GMA News