The Davao Killings

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 April) – The Commission on Human Rights has taken up Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s challenge to prove there is a Davao Death Squad (DDS).

“We have been challenged by the mayor and we are taking the challenge. We will prove that there is DDS,” CHR chair Leila de Lima said during a break in Friday afternoon’s public inquiry on extralegal killings at the Waterfront Insular Hotel here.

Today,  it is the mayor’s turn to say “amusing.”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/07 April) – An independent international human rights monitor launched at 10 a.m. in Quezon City, its 103-page report on the death squad killings in Davao City and neighboring areas which 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 launch comes a full week after HRW-Deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson, gave the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) public inquiry on extralegal killings here, a preview of  the report that states, among others, that the killings may be “state-sanctioned.”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/01 April) –  Cpl. Henry Bitang, the first to testify, was ordered by CHR chair Leila De Lima to remove his sunglasses and cap.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/01 April) – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) this morning denied the request of the chief of the 10^th Infantry Division to present the 13 soldiers alleged to be behind the March 4 “abduction, torture, rape and killing” of  the 20-year old daughter of a New People’s Army commander, in a closed-door or executive session.

The Commission en banc ruled on the March 29 letter of Maj. Gen. Rey Mapagu, chief of the 10^th Infantry Division, and found the reasons cited as “insufficient.”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 March) -- Human Rights Watch will release on April 7 an extensive report that the pattern of death squad killings in the city and police officials’ seeming lack of interest in investigating the cases suggest a “state-sanctioned nature of death squad operations” here, Elaine Pearson, deputy director of the Asia Division of  the Human Rights Watch, told the Commission on Human Rights public inquiry here.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/31 March) – Mayor Rodrigo  is relinquishing control and supervision of  the police to  the city’s police chief to give the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) a “free and unhampered conduct” of its investigation into the unresolved killings in the city, “devoid of any possible pressure and/or influence whatsoever.”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 March)  -- “Amazing,” was all that Commission on Human Rights chair Leila de Lima, could say to end  her 43-minute interrogation of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who, as expected, repeated previous pronouncements but this time under oath, that there are no state-sponsored killings in the city, and that he would resign the mayoralty “if there is an iota of evidence” that  he, the military or police, are behind these killings.

De Lima’s “amazing” remark capped a nearly hour-long questioning, some of which she began or ended with a sigh of exasperation.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/15 February) -- The United Nations' rapporteur for Human Rights, Philip Alston is arriving here Sunday to investigate the spate of killings of members of militant organizations and journalists, the military said.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/30 Jan) – Suspected members of a gang killed a jeepney driver and his passenger in an extortion attempt along Quirino Ave. early Tuesday morning, the police reported.