KARAPATAN expressed skepticism over Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s newly created task force to probe extrajudicial killings (EJK) under the Duterte regime’s war on drugs.
“Riddling the horizon with task forces has so far not been useful in dispensing justice for the victims,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay. “We seriously doubt that Secretary Remulla’s newly created task force is going to be any different from previous drug war review panel of the Justice Department, which only did a desk review of the cases, or the task force on labor-related killings,” she added, “or the inter-agency committee created under Administrative Order 35 that looks into EJKs, enforced disappearances and other grave human rights violations.”
“We need only look into AO 35’s latest record,” Palabay added, “where it exonerated the policemen involved in the killings of activists Manny Asuncion and couple Ana Marie and Ariel Evangelista, three of the nine individuals slain during the Bloody Sunday incident of March 7, 2021.”
AO 35, which was signed by former Pres. Benigno Aquino III in 2012, handled only 385 cases and secured only 13 convictions in the first seven years of its existence, and cleared 127 of those accused. This, out of the thousands of extrajudicial killings reported, mostly during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s nine-year rule.
“We believe that this is another of the Marcos Jr. regime’s tactics to window dress human rights,” said Palabay. “How can we expect anything substantial from a regime that is guilty of the same transgressions?”