Remulla: DOJ taking steps to hold erring law enforcers in EJKs accountable

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking all the necessary steps to hold erring law enforcers involved in extrajudicial killings (EJKs) accountable, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Wednesday.

Remulla issued the remark following a 2023 US report that found that EJKs  remained a “serious problem” in the Philippines and that there were no significant changes in the country’s human rights situation.

“We guarantee that reforms are in place to change the mindset and attitude of erring law enforcers and make them responsible for their actions. We are taking all the necessary steps to strengthen the criminal justice system and hold to account the perpetrators of these violations,” he said.

Remulla also said that there are no shortcuts in enforcing peace and order.

“It is of primordial consideration that we, as responsible State enforcers, uphold the rule of law and resolve to protect and promote human rights,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Amnesty International called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to make a categorical "policy pronouncement" against the war on drugs as it noted that EJKs had persisted in 2023.

At a press conference in Quezon City, Amnesty International Philippines director Butch Olano said Marcos should "make an explicit and categorical policy pronouncement to end the so-called war on drugs and EJKs."

Citing data from UP’s Dahas Project, which documents drug-related killings, Olano said there were 329 individuals killed in 2023. He also said UP’s Third World Studies Center found that 342 individuals were killed from June 2022 to June 2023.

Due to this, he said there were at least 600 people killed during the first 19 months of the Marcos administration.

In his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Germany in March, Marcos said he is not in favor of handling the drug menace with violence. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News