Dispatch from Crame No. 1,049:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on CHR's recent and comprehensive report on Duterte's drug war

3/26/21

The publicized highlights of a comprehensive report of CHR on the drug war operations further validates the Reuters' report on the existence of police killing squads in the drug war and the also recent UN report on the pattern of gun-and-evidence planting by the police, and previous reports by other independent groups.

This report is yet again another official confirmation of the open secret that the "nanlaban" defense used by the police is just an official code to cover-up state-sanctioned murders.

Di hamak na mas matingkad ang CHR report kaysa dun sa pinalabas ng DOJ-led inter-agency panel na siyang iniulat ni Sec. Guevarra sa UNHRC. Pro forma at malabnaw ang DOJ report. Halatang down-playing o exoneration project, o pag-iwas sa ICC probe ang ginagawang imbestigasyon inter-agency panel para iligtas ang ulo ni Duterte sa pananagutan.

What is even more frustrating is that all of this is for naught. The thousands of murdered drug suspects and users resulted in zero significant gain towards a drug-free Philippines.

The supply of illegal drugs entering the country is not even receding, in fact increasing. Nothing has been done to control the smuggling of drugs in our borders. Duterte's inaction on the smuggled COVID-19 vaccines, which was later "donated" by the smuggler to the Presidential Security Group, only shows this government's ineffectiveness and disinterest in preventing contrabands from entering our shores.

The PNP-PDEA "misencounter" is the icing on the case of the sorry state of our anti-drug program where mindless violence has replaced sincere and coordinated law enforcement.

Justice demands that this government answer for the killing spree by our state agents. So, all these public officials who either defend the drug war or part of Duterte's killing apparatus must be held accountable when the arc of the moral universe eventually bends towards justice. Apart from the ICC investigation, the Global Magnitsky Act is a good start. ###

(Access the handwritten version, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatchno1049)