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Newsbrief:
Philippine
Official
Asks
End
to
Vigilante
Killings
of
Drug
Dealers,
Users
5/10/02
Davao City Human Rights Commissioner Dominador Calamba II demanded on May 4 that local government officials in Mindinao province stop the vigilante killing of alleged drug dealers and users and gang members, the Philippine Star reported this week. At least 40 minors have been killed by vigilantes in the region since 1999, the newspaper reported. A task force to look into the killings was announced last year, but has not presented any findings, the paper said. "Let them stop the killings because they are counterproductive," Calamba said in remarks aimed at local government officials. "Vigilante killing is a crime and it mars the peace and order." Calamba said it was impossible that local officials did not know who was behind the killings, which they apparently tolerated. "I even believe that these killers are paid to execute their missions," he said. In March, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, chair of the Regional Peace and Order Council, accused Digos City Mayor Arsenio Latasa of involvement in the killings. According to a report in Sunstar Davao, a local news service, Duterte accused Latasa of hiring a band of "notorious killers, some of them police scalawags," to liquidate drug dealers in the area. Latasa denied the charge, saying he couldn't afford to hire vigilantes.
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