Duterte's denial of Davao Killings seen as cover up
By Carmela Fonbuena, abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak | 04/07/2009 1:43 PM
Printer-friendly version | 
Send to friend | 
Share your views
The spate of summary killings of petty criminals in Davao City, allegedly perpetrayed by the so-called "Davao Death Squad," has gained the attention of international group Human Rights Watch, which held President Arroyo and City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte responsible for the impunity of killings.
In turning a blind eye on the killings in Davao City, Human Rights Watch (HRW) executive director Kenneth Roth said the national government effectively emboldened the perpetrators to operate with impunity.
The Davao Death Squad is a vigilante-style motorcycle-riding group that is believed to have been organized in the mid-90s to cleanse the city of crime.
HRW on Monday released its 103-page report, You Can Die Anytime, which detailed the organized structure of the death squads in Davao City. It is believed to have inspired similar killings in other Mindanao cities.
HRW looked into 28 cases of summary killings and interviewed nine Davao Death Squad insiders.
Leila De Lima, chair of Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and who attended the HRW press conference, said the report is an "abundant source and provides possibe leads." She said the commission wishes to access the insiders that HRW was able to interview.
The CHR recently launched a probe on the Davao Killings, but Roth lamented the way the Department of Justice and the Office of Ombudsman has done nothing to address the problem.
The number of cases are growing. From two cases in 1998, there were 98 cases in 2003 and 124 in 2008. This year, 33 killings were reported in January alone.
Duterte's Role
In the local level, the international group is convinced of the "complicity of local government officials."
"These death squads are clearly operating with government complicity. We have evidence of the involvement of low level policeman," HRW's Roth stressed.
Roth said they "do not suggest that the mayor himslef is giving the orders... but he sends tacit signals that their operations are tolerated."
The group hit Duterte's continued denial of the existence of death squads. The long-time politician has also tendered his resignation as the deputized representative of the National Police Commission amid the probe of extrajudicial killings in the city. He also terminated his relationship with Task Force Davao, which implements security matters in the city.
Local government officials attributed the killings to local gang wars.
"Nobody can credibly deny the existence of a death squad. The fact that he (Duterte) continues to deny signals the cover up," Roth said.
Duterte has been known to read in TV and radio shows lists of people who were then killed. "Those kinds give blessing to the activity," Roth said.
Roth said there may be a number of death squads operating in Davao City, but clearly, they are under the control of one group.
That the killings are originally characterized by the use of a prohibitively expensive .45-caliber gun shows that the group has a financial backer and belies claims that the killings are results of gang wars. Gang wars are known to use sumpak, or the home-made guns.
But HRW noticed the recently increasing use of knives. Roth said this may be Intended to "make it look more like gang warfare."
HRW is calling on the government to admit the existence of death squads, condemn the killings, and dedicate government resources to run after perpetrators.
Part 2: Training for Davao Death Squad members
