XI. The Role of Government

 

If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a criminal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination.[145]

—Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, February 2009.

The mayor’s positioning is frankly untenable: He dominates the city so thoroughly as to stamp out whole genres of crime, yet he remains powerless in the face of hundreds of murders committed by men without masks in view of witnesses.

—Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, April 16, 2008.

 

Human Rights Watch’s research establishes that one reason for police failure to adequately investigate the targeted killings is that at least some police officers are involved in targeted killings and some local officials directly or tacitly support their activities. These officials place a greater premium on appearing “tough” on crime than on upholding the right to life, the rule of law, and ensuring justice for the families of the victims.

Death squad insiders told Human Rights Watch that death squad members felt protected at a higher level. Ramon said that his friend used to boast that “the mayor supports them.” Local barangay officials interviewed by Human Rights Watch confirmed this, saying that at least in their area, DDS members do not hide their affiliation with the group and even “boast” about it, knowing that “it is a mayor’s project, and the police are part of it,” so they would not be held accountable.[146]

 

Local Government

The relationship of longtime Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to the Davao Death Squad is unclear. While Duterte himself claims not to be involved with targeted killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, and street children, and indeed even questions the very existence of a death squad, his statements and actions feed a widespread belief in Davao City—expressed by the journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, eyewitnesses, death squad insiders, and families of victims with whom Human Rights Watch spoke—that he plays an important, and perhaps the most important role, in the group’s ongoing reign of death.

Years ago, Duterte personally visited certain crime-prone neighborhoods and announced the names of “criminals” on local TV and radio. CASE reported an incident on October 21, 2001, in which Duterte read names on his “anti-narcotic list” during his Sunday morning TV program. The day before, Joel Alburo, a man on probation for drug related charges and one of those named on the list, had been shot dead.[147] In another case, Duterte allegedly warned 19-year-old Alexander Buenaventura on his TV show in March 2002, saying their “paths will cross one day.” Buenaventura was shot dead in December that year, shortly after his release from the San Pedro Police Precinct.[148]

In a similar incident documented by Human Rights Watch, a relative of Noel Minoza said that Duterte, in a visit to Minoza’s Davao City neighborhood in early 1999, told a group of local residents that they should be held responsible for the behavior of their children. To Minoza, who was known in the community for using drugs, Duterte allegedly said, “Do you want to stay inside a coffin? If you don’t change, you will go straight underground.” Minoza was sent away by his parents, but later returned, and was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in July that year.[149]

Angela told Human Rights Watch about a visit by the mayor to her neighborhood:

About six years ago, the mayor came to our barangay. We all gathered in the basketball court to listen to his speech. He told the people not to do bad things, and then he held a balloon in one hand and pierced it with a knife—saying that this would happen to people who commit bad things. Next day, he spoke on TV.... He showed a long list of names—they scrolled it on the screen very slowly. There were 30 people on the list from our barangay. To date, 12 of them have been killed.[150]

In recent years Duterte appears to have become more careful in his public statements and media interviews, yet he has continued to deliver the same message, at times all but admitting a role in the death squad killings. In a November 2003 article in The Washington Post, Duterte was quoted as saying:

I don't mind us being called the murder capital of the Philippines as long as those being killed are the bad guys. From day one, I said henceforth Davao [City] will be very, very dangerous for criminals. I've been telling criminals it’s a place where you can die any time. If that’s a cue for anybody, that’s fine.[151]

After an election eve press conference in 2004, Duterte allegedly told the crowd:

If I win, more criminals will get killed because I have vowed to protect the people of this city. It’s true that there have been killings. But who were those killed? Weren’t they criminals? They were all fools. Now if you tell me you won’t vote for me because I’ve killed many people, then don’t vote for me.[152]

In January 2007, he told The SunStar Davao, “I am sure these are not killings sponsored by the City Government. Maybe on serious crimes like drugs and kidnappings but not on thieves and gang members.”[153]

In a 2007 meeting with Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Duterte insisted that such statements were for public consumption and would have no effect on police conduct.[154] Yet in reality, Duterte has not only publicly encouraged extra-judicial measures and tolerated police inaction vis-à-vis the perpetrators of death squad killings, but has also effectively shielded the police from accountability.

In an August 2008 interview with the Mindanao Times, Duterte started by saying, “there is no such thing as government-sponsored killings. We have our oath to protect the lives of our people.” But then he again added that Davao City is “definitely not safe for criminals.”[155]

 In a public meeting in February 2009, hosted by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Davao City Council’s committee on human rights, Duterte reportedly said:

What I want is to instill fear.... If it will send the wrong signals, then I am sorry. But what wrong did I commit? The problem comes if we get the wrong people.... I have children. And if you give drugs to my children, I will not go to the police and report you. What I will do is to grab a gun and go to you and kill you.[156]

Following the Duterte model, the mayors of General Santos City and Digos City appear to have adopted a similarly “tough” approach to crime. General Santos City Mayor Pedro Acharon reportedly told reporters, “I hope the illegal drug traffickers will take the government deadline seriously because we will run after them at all costs.” The day before this warning, a government deadline for the crackdown on illegal drugs expired and two suspected drug pushers were shot dead by unidentified gunmen.[157]

Arsenio Latasa, mayor of Digos City, reportedly told a local newspaper, "We could no longer take this as a joke [referring to robberies in his city]. It means that if we need to kill them [criminals], kill them.”[158] In Digos City, an individual closely affiliated with the city government told Human Rights Watch that a local official “hired a so-called Digos Death Squad to kill drug pushers, and offered the price of 5,000 pesos (about $104) for each hit, plus another 5,000 pesos if the victim’s ear is presented.”[159]

Similarly, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña reportedly said of a series of killings of suspected criminals, “I’m not behind it. I will say I inspired it. I don’t deny that.”[160] On another occasion, he said, “As a matter of fact, I’m happy some of those killed are robbers. I’m not ashamed to admit that. ...To me, as long as there’s fewer robberies and snatching, it’s not so bad.”[161]

Human Rights Watch submitted written requests for information to the mayors of Davao City, General Santos City, Digos City, and Tagum City. Of them, only Pedro B. Acharon Jr., mayor of General Santos City, replied to Human Rights Watch.

In his response, Acharon categorically denied the existence of a death squad:

Let me begin by denying the existence of “a pattern of execution-style killings” of suspected petty criminals, street children or journalists, as well as existence of “death squads” in General Santos City. I, as elected City Mayor for the last seven years have not tolerated nor will tolerate or condone any instance of summary execution of individuals, suspects or not, petty criminals or otherwise.[162]

He also emphasized that firearms of high caliber were available to anyone who can afford to own one, but he failed to address the point that the price of such firearms is prohibitively high for most common criminals. Acharon wrote, however, that police forces in the city are “overstretched” and lack “the manpower to singularly focus on individual incidences of criminality, extra-judicial or not.”[163]

A major issue that remains unanswered is the financing of DDS operations. As discussed above, DDS members who carry out the killings receive substantial payments for their participation. The sources of this funding are not clear, but two areas require further investigation.

One possible source is city and province budgets. The Local Government Act of 1990 gave mayors and governors operational supervision and control over the police in their respective jurisdictions. This included the authority to “employ and deploy” units of the PNP, discipline police officers for certain offenses, and choose the chief of police among candidates recommended by provincial police directors.[164]

According to a PNP spokesperson, although the PNP headquarters provide the police across the country with funds to pay salaries and other expenses, local authorities can choose to, and often do, use part of their regular budget in supporting police forces in their jurisdiction by providing them with computers, stationery, vehicles, gasoline, and firearms, among other necessities.[165] Human Rights Watch does not have information on whether such funds are being diverted to death squad operations.

A second possible source is the city government’s Peace and Order Fund. The Peace and Order Fund is allocated by the president to governors and mayors to spend in their discretion for counterinsurgency and anti-crime programs. Various sources in Davao City, who believe that local authorities financially support death squad killings, told Human Rights Watch that they believe DDS operations are financed from the city government’s Peace and Order Fund because it is a very large fund and not all draw-downs in any given year are properly accounted for.[166] Human Rights Watch has insufficient information to verify or discount such claims.

The Peace and Order Fund includes the mayor’s discretionary fund for security and intelligence operations. In the city’s proposed 2009 budget, it reportedly accounts for 450 million pesos (about US$9.4 million) of the overall 3.2 billion pesos (about US$67 million) budget.[167]

Several insiders told Human Rights Watch that they believe additional funds are provided by local businessmen who are both interested in keeping the criminals off the streets and want to demonstrate their support for the “mayor’s initiatives.”[168]

National Government

Successive Philippine governments, including the current administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, have largely turned a blind eye to targeted killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, and street children, and the role of local governments and law enforcement in such killings in Davao City and other cities.

One of the few public statements of concern came from an advisor to President Arroyo, Jesus Dureza, in 2004. He criticized the pattern of death squad killings in Davao City, saying:

This is not the system of our laws. Hence, I am calling the attention of all concerned government agencies to immediately solve the series of killings in the city. There is no substitute for the normal procedures of our laws. If we want to run after criminal elements, the police must double their efforts in running after them and drag them to jail and charges could be filed against them for their offenses. Killing them would not serve the purpose. And the end does not justify the means.”[169]

In February 2008, Dureza repeated that “no one can play God” in Davao City or elsewhere.[170]

Such statements from the national government, however, are rare and so far have little effect on the situation in Davao City and neighboring cities where the killings take place—largely because they are not backed by action against the officials directly or indirectly responsible for the spree of killings.