Top officials to attend Senate hearing on extra-judicial slays

Top officials involved in law enforcement have confirmed their attendance at the Senate when the Committee on Justice and Human Rights conducts an inquiry into the extra-judicial killings under the Duterte administration.

De Lima, the committee chairman, said among those that have confirmed include Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno, National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran, and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Isidro Lapeña.

PNP chief Director General Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa on Thursday told De Lima in a Senate hearing on proposed law enforcement measures that he would be "happy" to attend the justice committee hearing on next week.

De Lima said Commission on Human Rights chairman Chito Gascon would also attend.

De Lima's two-day Senate inquiry will be conducted on Monday and Tuesday, August 22 and 23.

De Lima said the committee will also look into probable solutions on how to improve the Philippine’s criminal justice system.

She said the committee will also discuss a proposal she filed, Senate Bill No. 369 or the Criminal Investigation Act of 2016, which seeks to improve the criminal justice process to dissuade vigilantism.

“We need to address the phenomenon of vigilantism and summary killings and to enhance the accountability of state and non-state actors,” De Lima said.

“Regardless of the question whether those killed were in fact criminals, precisely because there was no opportunity for them to be prosecuted before a court of law, the fight against crime is apparently becoming a state-sanctioned cover for a policy of summary executions and extrajudicial killings of any and all suspected criminals,” she added.

Last month, De Lima filed Senate Resolution No. 9 to address the increase in extrajudicial killings and summary executions of suspected criminals and to strengthen “the mechanisms of accountability of law enforcers, instituting corrective measures to ensure full respect for basic human rights, especially the right to life.”

On Friday, De Lima, despite being receiving tirades from President Rodrigo Duterte, vowed to push through with her investigation on the spate of drug-related summary killings under his administration.

A former CHR chairperson, De Lima lamented the fact that “killings have become so common that mass media has settled for fill-in-the-blank template news reports, differing only in the place, time and name of the victim.”

Despite the ongoing spat between them, De Lima clarified that she fully supports Duterte’s war on drugs and crime and “by presenting the truth, we aim to achieve genuine victory in the campaign against drugs and criminality by enacting the necessary laws and policies that will help our law enforcers better perform their mandate.” —NB, GMA News