Palace backs reopening of drug war killing probe
Metro Manila, Philippines — Malacañang has expressed support in reopening the probe on the bloody drug war of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The reopening of the investigations of the high killings related to the war on drugs should indicate that the Marcos administration places the highest importance on the fair dispensation of justice and on the universal observance of the rule of law in the country,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
At the House of Representatives, PCol Royina Garma (ret.), former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager, said a police officer from Central Visayas boasted about killing Tanauan City Mayor Antonio Halili in 2018.
Halili was shot dead in broad daylight by an unidentified assailant. He was known for parading drug suspects in the city’s streets.
A House quad committee is conducting a probe on extrajudicial killings, illegal offshore gaming, and illegal drugs during the Duterte administration. Other slay cases have been mentioned during the past eight committee hearings.
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Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier said they are still waiting for the full testimonies from the House mega panel.
“I think pretty soon there will be corroborative testimonies that will abound,” Remulla told a news briefing. “I think with their testimonies, some of the cold cases will be opened.”
PNP chief PGen Rommel Marbil also said Duterte administration national police chiefs will be asked to comment on the drug war exposé.
The administration has stood firm that the country will not rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is conducting an investigation on alleged crimes against humanity related to Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
The Office of the Solicitor General, the government’s top lawyer, also said that the House mega panel “has already done much of what the ICC investigator intends to do.”
“All that the quad comm needs to do is to turn over all evidence gathered in the course of its legislative inquiry to the proper government agencies in charge of investigation and prosecution, as congress has always done in the past,” Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said Monday.
Guevarra reiterated that domestic institutions “could very well handle the investigation and prosecution of any crimes in relation to the so-called war on drugs.”
The Philippines withdrew from the ICC effective March 2019 under Duterte’s watch.
