By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) - Eleven Philippine senators have signed a joint committee report on state killings and death squad existence, clearing President Rodrigo Duterte of alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings in his bloody war on drugs in the country.
Human Rights groups were left aghast from July to the early part of October as Duterte's anti-drugs election promise saw a rise in drug-related killings to 42,481 -- an average of 47 killings per day.
The 89-page report of the joint panel -- senate committees on justice, and human rights and public order chaired by senators Richard Gordon and Panfilo Lacson, respectively -- showed there is no sufficient evidence to prove Duterte's administration is sponsoring summary killings in the Philippines, nor is there proof of so-called death squads.
ABS-CBN News reported Thursday that senators Gordon and Lacson filed the report Wednesday, after six hearings which investigated the recent spate of extra-judicial killings.
The report was signed by nine other senators, three of whom, however, affixed their signatures either with reservations or expressed intentions to propose amendments to the report.
"None of the witnesses were able to sufficiently prove that there is a state-sponsored policy or order from the current administration to commit extra-judicial killings or summary killings to eradicate illegal drugs or even other crimes in the country," the report said.
"Based on the evidence presented before the Committee, there is no sufficient evidence to serve as basis for State-sponsored killings."
It added that "unabated and excessive" killings were also not unique to the Duterte administration, saying that vigilante slayings have been known in the last two decades under names such as "cardboard justice," "motorcycle riding-in-tandem," and "salvaging".
While the panels concluded that the president had no hand in the rise of summary executions, they “cautioned” him to implement his campaign against illegal drugs within the bounds of the law, being the primary "role model" in the country.
It said that the Duterte administration had tallied 42,481 killings from July to the early part of October, yielding an average of 47 killings per day over a four-month period.
In comparison, the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo averaged 28 killings daily, or a total of 91,762 deaths, between 2001 and 2009.
The presidency of Benigno Aquino III, meanwhile, recorded 85,878 killings from 2010 to 2016 -- 40 killings per day.
The probe was initiated by Leila de Lima, a human rights advocate, and staunch critic of Duterte who previously headed the justice committee until she was ousted from the post and replaced by Gordon.