Give Philippines a chance to probe activists' killings, says Palace
The Philippine government should be given a chance to investigate the killings of nine alleged activists in Southern Luzon by law enforcers amid concerns raised by various local and international groups.
In a televised press briefing on Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said it is the obligation of the state to investigate, prosecute, and punish those who would be found guilty of committing a crime.
"So, I ask the European Union, please give the Philippines a chance to discharge its obligation to investigate, punish and prosecute those who may have breached our domestic laws. We are undertaking and discharging the state obligation to investigate, prosecute, and punish," he said.
The EU has reminded the Duterte administration of its commitment to protect human rights defenders and enable their work in accordance with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
Nine people were killed in separate police and military operations last Sunday in Batangas, Cavite and Rizal, targeting members of militant organizations.
Militant groups have been claiming that the killings were prompted by President Rodrigo Duterte's fresh order to the government forces to "kill, kill, kill" members of the communist New People's Army.
"To UN High Commissioners for Human Rights and other human rights groups, impunity has no place in the Duterte administration. Anyone who violate the law will be held responsible and punished under our law," Roque said.
He said the Department of Justice is trying to conduct a speedy but impartial investigation into the incidents.
Roque also promised that the Palace would also look into reports that the military has been blocking the release of the bodies of the slain activists despite call by their relatives and lawyers.
He agreed that it is important to conduct an autopsy on the bodies of the activists "because physical evidence will not lie."
Roque, who is a lawyer by profession, said that the autopsy could help determine to prove if they were murdered.
"Perhaps the delay on the release is because there is a need to subject them to autopsy, because it's an SOP that if there's a crime that happened, that should be subject to autopsy. And it's not private doctors who conduct the autopsy, it has to be accredited government physicians, such as PNP (Philippine National Police) Lab or the NBI (national Bureau of Investigation)," he said.
Roque refused to say that what was happening was harassment of activists.
"I don't know if there is any harassment. What is happening is, we are investigating and autopsy is part of the investigation, so we could prosecute and punish the perpetrators, if there is any," he said.
Meanwhile, Roque said that law enforcers are expected to be fully equipped with body cameras when conducting operations by April.
With the body cameras, he said this would address doubts from the public whenever authorities conduct operations and somebody gets killed
"Body cam is a physical evidence and physical evidence won't lie," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS
