The appointment of Mañanita cop Major General Debold Sinas as the new Philippine National Police chief does not come as a surprise for us: President Rodrigo Duterte has a clear penchant for rewarding the most notorious of human rights violators among his minions with rank promotions as well as higher budgets for their agencies.
The appointment of Mañanita cop Major General Debold Sinas as the new Philippine National Police chief does not come as a surprise for us: President Rodrigo Duterte has a clear penchant for rewarding the most notorious of human rights violators among his minions with rank promotions as well as higher budgets for their agencies. What lies ahead for the Filipino people with Sinas’s appointment is a bloody party of human rights violations where Duterte’s most rabid and murderous lapdogs are given freer rein to merrily kill, kill, and kill with wanton impunity.
This is explicit in the marching orders for Sinas’ appointment: to continue the sham and bloody drug war and the repression of critics and activists. During his stint as regional director of the Central Visayas Police Regional Office from July 2018 to October 2019, the local Commission on Human Rights office noted the increase of drug-related killings in the region. Sinas’ trail is further marked with more killings and illegal arrests and detention in the course of the implementation of the Synchronized Enhanced Management of Police Operations and Oplan Sauron in Negros, which led the spate of killings of peasants and human rights advocates in the island last year.
As the regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office, Sinas led the police in illegal raids on the offices of progressive groups in Manila—one of which led to the arrest of Reina Mae Nasino—as well as defending incidents of police abuse and brutality in the implementation of quarantine measures. Karapatan has nothing but indignation and disgust for Sinas’ appointment. The messages being sent are clear as day: follow the president’s orders and you will be protected and promoted, and that this fascist regime is gearing up for an intensified crackdown on dissent and assault on human rights by appointing one of its most loyal butchers as the country’s top cop.