House panel issues show cause order vs PNP’s Caramat

The House committee on human rights on Wednesday issued a show cause order against a Philippine National Police (PNP) official for failing to attend the hearing on extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under the Duterte administration.

The show cause order was issued against Police Major General Romeo Caramat Jr., the former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and currently the acting area commander of Northern Luzon.

“There are still resource persons who are invited. As of today, they are not present... Particularly, the former CIDG Police Major General Romeo Caramat who was present last hearing, now he is not present,” said Abang Lingkod Party List Representative Joseph Stephen Paduano who moved for the show cause order.

Some solons also lamented that many resource persons, mostly from the PNP, did not attend the hearing.

Most of them, however, were able to provide an excuse or had not officially received the invitation yet.

Earlier, House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas lauded the hearing as “historical,” stressing that it was the first hearing on drug war killings since the campaign started in 2016.

“It is really about time na pag-usapan ‘yung naganap na war on drugs nung panahon ng Duterte administration and if there are violations again during the Marcos administration. Gusto po natin malaman kung ano itsura ngayon nitong usapin na ito,” Brosas said.

(It’s really about time to talk about what happened on the war on drugs during the Duterte administration and if there are violations against during the Marcos administration. We need to know what the situation looks like right now.)

More than 6,000 people were killed in former President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-narcotics campaign, but rights groups say that up to 30,000 may have been killed.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is also currently probing Duterte’s drug war. —VAL, GMA Integrated News