|
Newsbrief:
Death
Squad
Killings
Spike
Upward
in
Davao
2/11/05
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/374/davao.shtml
As
DRCNet reported two weeks ago, the US military is on a training exercise
with Philippine military and police in the violence-ridden southern city
of Davao. While the US military reports that the training includes
a human rights component, that part of the program apparently has not yet
sunk in for anti-drug and anti-crime death squad killers widely linked
to the city's flamboyant mayor, Rodrigo Duterte.
 |
|
|
Balikatan 2004 US-Philippine joint exercises
|
|
The Mindanao Times reported
last week that the number of summary executions in the city had reached
an all-time monthly high last month, with 45 people being shot dead by
motorcycle-riding gunmen in plain clothes. Not a single arrest was
made in the killings, the Times noted. At least three more people
were killed by the shadowy "Davao Death Squad" in the first week of February,
the Times reported.
Davao police officials attempted
to pin the blame for the killings on intramural fighting among drug traffickers,
a tactic also used by Thai authorities last year as they sought a "final
solution" to that nation's drug problem by killing an estimated 2,500 people.
Regional police director Simeon Dizon issued a statement in mid-January
saying the murders were the result of a "drug war" and telling the public
to expect more killings. At least Dizon was correct on the latter
score.
Davao City Mayor Duterte
remains unabashed and barely bothers to deny his involvement in the killings.
At a press conference Monday, Duterte, reacting to accusations that the
killings are government-sponsored, responded "so be it." If he had
to kill 200 criminals to protect the city of 1.4 million from harm, he
would do so, he said. "I don't give a shit on what they would say
about me, I don't give a shit about my image. If I stand alone in
this belief, so be it; if I rise and fall because of this image, it's okay,"
he said.
Duterte blamed public concern
about the vigilante killings on media hype, adding that the Davao Death
Squad "does not exist as far as city hall is concerned." Nor, said
Duterte, did he care that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines had asked
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to intercede in the murderous rampage.
Duterte also suggested that
press critics should investigate the killings, but bar association Davao
City president Carlos Zarate retorted that that was supposed to be the
job of the police. "If the heads of our law enforcement offices cannot
do it [find the killers], then decency demands they resign and let someone
else do the job," he said in a statement last week.
The deputy ombudsman for
Mindanao is adding to the pressure. According to the newspaper Sunstar
Davao, the ombudsman has asked the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation
to look into the murders. That request received a positive response
from NBI chief Reynaldo Wycoco, who agreed to investigate. Now, the
question is whether the NBI will be any more efficient than local police
in finding the executioners.
-- END --
|
Issue #374
-- 2/11/05
Editorial:
A
Cautious
First
Step
|
First
North
American
Heroin
Maintenance
Study
Now
Underway
in
Vancouver
|
DRCNet
Interview:
Marijuana
Policy
Project
Director
Rob
Kampia
|
DRCNet
Book
Review:
"It's
Just
a
Plant,"
by
Ricardo
Cortes
(2005,
Magic
Propaganda
Mill,
$17.95
HB)
|
Drug
War
Chronicle's
Phil
Smith
Featured
in
New
Book
--
"Under
The
Influence"
Available
as
DRCNet
Premium
|
Newsbrief:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Newsbrief:
Memphis
Taxpayers
to
Pay
Big
Time
for
Police
Drug
Raid
Killing
|
Newsbrief:
Bush
Budget
Slashes
Funds
for
Local
Police,
Increases
DEA
Funding
|
Newsbrief:
What
Meth
Epidemic?
National
Survey
Shows
Amphetamine
Use
Unchanged
from
Year
Earlier
|
Newsbrief:
Death
Squad
Killings
Spike
Upward
in
Davao
|
Newsbrief:
Indian
Government
Blinks
in
Face
of
Threatened
Drug
Shortage
|
Newsbrief:
Marijuana
Reform
Under
Attack
in
Western
Australia
|
Newsbrief:
Bob
Marley
Birthday
Bash
in
Addis
Ababa
Comes
Off
Without
a
Hitch
|
Newsbrief:
London
Police
Chief
Ramps
Up
Rhetorical
War
on
Middle-Class
Cocaine
Use
|
Web
Scan:
Debra
Saunders,
Drug
War
Carol,
DPA
Web
Chat,
Drug
Truth
Radio
|
This
Week
in
History
|
Errata:
Meth
Bill
Sponsor
|
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
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