BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved a resolution urging the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Commission on Human Rights to come up with theinvestigation and a comprehensive report on the unsolved and alleged drug-related extra-judicial killings or murders committed in the city.
The resolution authored by Councilors Arthur Alad-iw, Faustino Olowan, and Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. also urged the public, especially the witnesses to the said deaths, to disclose to the investigators their personal accounts on the circumstances of the killings.
The resolution stated there is a need to unearth the truth of the unresolved deaths by through a thorough investigation and come out with a true and comprehensive report to calm down the citizens and bury all the apprehensions and speculations and revitalize the trust of the people to the local police force.
Earlier, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan claimed the series of killings in the city is hurting the image of the city as a tourism destination and also the policewhile appealing that due process must be observed and ordered the investigations of the unresolved deaths so that those responsible be held accountable.
The resolution asserted the extrajudicial killings are even done in broad daylight by motorcycle riding-in-tandem killers that have alarmed city officials and residents.
The resolution added no less than President Rodrigo Duterte declared that in the war against illegal drugs, the rule of law must be followed and he has consistently announced that no orders were issued by him for policemen to kill-on-sight suspected drug personalities, clarifying that only those who choose to fight it out with government forces will be eliminated.
The proponents revealed the claim that some of the deaths of the drug personalities were allegedly committed by vigilante groups, rival drug syndicates or government agents, thus, the call for a thorough investigation to bring back peoples’trust on the police.
The proponents added the alleged drug-related extrajudicial killings or murders have caused a chilling effect on the people of the city as they fear that it is infested with drug syndicates, whose murderous operations are done with ease in broad daylight with no perpetrators being arrested.
More importantly, the resolution stated the extrajudicial killings tramples on the right that no person shall be deprived of life without due process of law as contained in the 1987 Philippine Constitution and international laws.
By Dexter A. See
