DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/07 July) –  The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on the “Death Squad killings in Mindanao” titled “You Can Die Any Time” was launched Monday at the Ateneo de Davao University here, three months since its Philippine launch in Quezon City.

The launch coincided with the 10^th anniversary of the campaign against summary executions – with the Coalition Against Summary Executions (CASE)  recording 906 cases, presented in a haunting video documentation showing the year and names of victims in white against a black backdrop.

“Ten years and 906 lives wasted. Ten years of families in mourning for the loss of loved ones, of searching for justice – and of not finding it. Ten years of community inaction and acceptance in Davao City and other cities that nurtured these unjustified killings. Ten years of having failed the dead. Ten years and 906 lives…. And counting. Ten long and heart-rending years of reason to revisit the graves, to seek the truth, and to confront ourselves and our society that this timew e have run out of excuses not to take action to put an immediate end to the summary executions in Davao City,” the CASE said in its video documentation.

The launching of the HRW report was initially marred by the arrival of students in uniform from the University of Southeastern Philippines – scholars of  Speaker Prospero Nograles – who arrived at the second floor venue of the Finster building, claiming they were required to attend a “Nograles forum on human rights”

The Ateneo de Davao University College of Law, organizer of the book launch and 10^th anniversary commemoration of the campaign against summary execution, told the audience the forum was not an activity of any politician. The Nograles scholars left, some returned and later left again.

The launch was attended by Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla; mothers of the departed; relatives of victims; students; human rights workers; city councilors; and Jocelyn Duterte, estranged sister of Mayor Duterte.

Manuel Quibod, Dean of the Ateneo College of Law, said they are “privileged to host the Davao launching of the HRW report.”

“You are here because you’ve decided to break your silence… your presence here is enough, is a very clear manifestation that we do not subscribe to the idea that summary execution is a solution to crime,” Quibod said.

“Nine hundred six lives. And they say the DDS (Davao Death Squad) is a myth?” asked lawyer Carlos Isagani Zarate, secretary-general of the Union of Peoples Lawyers in Mindanao. Zarate gave the backgrounder on the ten-year campaign against summary execution.

Clarita Alia, who lost four sons to summary execution, was unable to control her tears. Another mother, who lost two children to summary execution, told her later during the post-activity snacks that she made her cry again. “Sakit man gihapon. Upat baya to sila (It’s still very painful. I lost four), Alia told the other mother. “Duha lang sa ako pero…” (I lost two.. ) but her voice trailed off as tears started flowing.

Everyone was silent when Fr. Albert Alejo performed his poem, “Sanayan lang ang pagpatay” (Killing is just a matter of practice). The poem, also the title of a collection of Alejo’s poetry, was written in Davao around 1985, during the dark days of martial law. Before EDSA 1986, the city was known as the country’s “killing fields.”

The 103-page HRW report on the death squad killings in Davao City and neighboring areas “found evidence of complicity and at times direct involvement of government officials and members of the police in killings by the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS).”

The report is downloadable from the HRW website.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly said there are no state-sponsored killings in the city. Police officials at the public inquiry in Davao City of the Commission on Human Rights on March 30 and 31 this year,  also denied involvement of is personnel in the killings.

But the Human Rights Watch report said “there is an almost complete lack of political will by the government at both local and national levels to address targeted killings and take action against the perpetrators” and that  based on “consistent, detailed, and compelling accounts from families and friends of victims, eyewitnesses of targeted killings, barangay officials, journalists,

community activists, and the ‘insiders,’ Human Rights Watch has concluded that a death

squad and lists of people targeted for killings exist in Davao City.”

“We also conclude that at least some police officers and barangay officials are either involved or complicit in death squad killings. Human Rights Watch believes that such killings continue and the perpetrators enjoy impunity largely because of the tolerance of, and in some cases, outright

support from local authorities,” it said. 

But Human Rights Watch said the  “failure to dismantle the Davao Death Squad and other similar groups, prosecute those responsible, and bring justice to the families of victims lies not only with local authorities.” It said the Arroyo administration “has largely turned a blind eye to the killing spree in Davao City and elsewhere.” 

“The Philippine National Police have not sought to confront the problem. And the inaction of the national institutions responsible for accountability, namely the Department of Justice, the Ombudsman’s Office, and the Commission on Human Rights, has fueled widespread impunity,” it said.
Human Rights Watch said it obtained “detailed and consistent information on the DDS from relatives and friends of death squad members with direct knowledge of death squad operations, as well as journalists, community activists, and government officials who provided detailed corroborating evidence” and that according to these ‘insiders,’ most members of the DDS are “either former communist New People’s Army insurgents who surrendered to the government or young men who themselves were death squad targets and joined the group to avoid being killed.”

“Most can make far more money with the DDS than in other available occupations,” the report said. One source cited the figures from P5,000 to P50,000 or even as high as P100,000. 

The report added that the killers’ “handlers,” called “amo” (boss) are “usually police officers or ex-police officers” who provide them with “training, weapons and ammunition, motorcycles, and information on the targets.”

Death squad members often use .45-caliber handguns, a weapon commonly used by the police but normally prohibitively expensive for gang members and common criminals.
The report said firearms issued to DDS members were mostly .45-caliber handguns. 
On April 8, a day after the HRW report was launched, the city police chief here said he had yet to read the 103-page report of the Human Rights Watch on the alleged “complicity and at times direct involvement” of government officials and the police in the death squad killings.

Sr. Supt. Ramon Apolinario said he had yet to read the report launched at 10 a.m. April 7 in a Quezon City hotel. The report was uploaded in the website of  the New York-based Human Rights Watch at the same time.
Told about the report’s findings that the killers “amo” (boss or handlers) ore police officers or retired police officers, Apolinario replied, “if that is the report, then they should be naming names para imbestigahan na natin, di ba?” (so we can investigate, right?).

He said it should not only be the Davao City police “but the entire Philippine National Police should investigate this if there are really people who do this.”
He told reporters during a break from doing a security check at the bus terminal that as police chief, he will “not tolerate this kind of activity.

MindaNews checked with Apolinario on July 6 if he had read the HRW report. He did not answer the query by. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)

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