Duterte will not allow cops accused of murder by NBI to go to jail
President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he would not permit the Leyte policemen who the National Bureau of Investigation pointed out in a report were behind the deaths of a town mayor and an inmate in a jail.
“The findings about the police (was) murder… I believe in the police…,” said Duterte in his speech during the Urban Poor Solidarity Week in Mandaluyong City.
“I will not allow these guys to go to prison even if the NBI says it is murder. The NBI is under me and the Department of Justice, too, but I do not interfere,” he added.
According to the NBI, which is under the justice department, the killing of Espinosa and co-inmate Raul Yap inside a provincial jail in Leyte was a rubout and not a shootout. Espinosa was an alleged drug lord in Eastern Visayas.
“So, they have findings? Good. File a case but I will look after the police because I gave them the order,” Duterte said.
The justice department named a five-man panel of prosecutors to conduct a preliminary investigation of the 24 policemen, led by regional criminal investigation group Superintendent Marvin Marcos, for multiple murder and maliciously obtaining search warrant
In a department order, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said the prosecutors will “consolidate the investigation of the cases recommended by the NBI and is further directed to expedite the issuance of subpoena to all respondents and proceed with the preliminary investigation.”::
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) expressed hope the NBI investigation which alleged a rubout of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa and an inmate, would pave the way for more probes by the Duterte administration on alleged summary killings of drug suspects.
"We want that to be the common practice, not the exception," said CHR chairperson Chito Gascon in a forum in Quezon City.
Of the more than 5,800 drug-related killings, over 2,000 were from police operations, according to the Philippine National Police.
Gascon said the death toll was even higher compared to the initial years of martial law, which late President Ferdinand Marcos declared in 1972.
Duterte's son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, in a statement, said Gascon's comparison was outrageous.
"The victims of Martial Law and those who were killed during police operations against drug personalities do not bear any comparison -- not even in numbers," he said.
"Being compared to the people whose lives were wasted on the evils of illegal drugs was an insult to those who died because of their political ideology," the young Duterte said.
"But it can only be surmised that Gascon's recklessness and insensitivity emanate from the efforts to attack and undermine President Duterte and his agenda to rid the country of illegal drugs, solve the peace and order problem, and end corruption in government," the younger Duterte stressed.
Gascon said his office has been investigating 420 cases of drug-related killings and of these cases, seven were completed. He said the CHR is forwarding its recommendations to justice department.
If justice department would not act on it, he said they could submit their reports to the Ombudsman.
Gascon said his office would continue with the investigations even if the current administration seemed to be lukewarm in filing cases.
"What we can do today is to prepare for any eventuality," he said referring to the action that the CHR might take after Duterte's term is over. Celerina Monte/DMS
