XII. Recommendations

To the President of the Philippines

• Publicly denounce extrajudicial killings and local anti-crime campaigns that promote or encourage the unlawful use of force, starting in Davao City, and pledge that state employees who are found to be involved or complicit in such killings shall be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
• Order the Ombudsman’s Office, and the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct an inquiry and report promptly and publicly on the involvement of the Philippine National Police and city governments in targeted killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals and street children in Davao City, General Santos City, Digos City, Tagum City, and Cebu City, and recommend a specific plan of action for the criminal investigation and prosecution of individuals involved in such activity. Individuals identified as participating in targeted killings or failing to investigate such killings should be reprimanded or prosecuted as appropriate.
• Order the Philippines National Police to conduct thorough investigations into individual cases of targeted killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, and street children in Davao City, General Santos City, Digos City, and Tagum City.
• Order an appropriate government agency, such as the Commission on Audit, to investigate whether the Peace and Order fund or other public monies have been used directly or indirectly for death squad activities in the aforementioned cities.
• Invite the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to assist with investigations.

To the Philippine Congress

• Conduct hearings on the Davao Death Squad and similar groups elsewhere in the Philippines, with special attention paid to whether local officials and police officers are involved in such killings.

To the Philippine National Police

• Conduct thorough investigations into targeted killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, and street children in Davao City, General Santos City, Digos City, and Tagum City.
• Open hotlines or comparable lines of communication to receive anonymous information on targeted killings of alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, and street children, including from eyewitnesses, in Davao City, General Santos City, Digos City, and Tagum City.
• Investigate the alleged participation and complicity of police officers in targeted killings, including officials who fail to rigorously investigate cases, and reprimand them or hand them over for prosecution as appropriate.
• Educate police officers on issues affecting street children, and train them to ensure that rights accorded to children are protected.
• Include targeted killings as a separate category in the National Crime History Registry, and make it easily accessible to the public.
• Make PNP operational procedures, the investigators’ manual, and other guidelines setting out duties of police officers easily accessible to the public. Ensure that the guidelines place a duty on law enforcement officers to protect the fundamental rights of criminal suspects and the security of witnesses.

To the Department of Justice

• Give priority to investigating alleged extrajudicial killings, including targeted killings, and other serious crimes that may involve security forces or government officials.
• Conduct broader investigations into killings that appear linked or to have been carried out according to a similar modus operandi, with particular attention to targeted killings.
• Ensure the safety of witnesses and families of victims during and after trial.
• Institute measures for witnesses to offer testimonies safely, for example by using videotaped testimonies, a closed courtroom, or by deposition.
• Set up a witness protection program that is safeguarded by an agency other than the PNP. Ensure that the program provides protection for witnesses from the onset of the filing of a relevant case to its closure, and after the trial, if necessary.
• Implement mechanisms for witnesses to change identity, transfer to locations other than their places of residence, including to other provinces, pending trial and, if necessary, after trial.

To the Commission on Human Rights

• Investigate and report publicly and promptly on the Davao Death Squad and similar groups and the involvement of the PNP and city governments in Davao City and other cities where death squad activity has been reported.
• Identify CHR officials in Mindanao who have failed to respond appropriately to petitions or complaints from families of victims of targeted killings, and reprimand them in accordance with the law.

To the Ombudsman’s Office

• Investigate law enforcement officers and other government officials suspected of involvement or complicity in death squad activity, including officials who fail to adequately investigate targeted killings, and seek reprimands or prosecutions as appropriate.

To the National Bureau of Investigation

• Investigate allegations of the involvement or complicity of law enforcement officials in death squad activity and prosecute officials as warranted by the facts.
• Conduct a thorough investigation into the operation of the Davao Death Squad and similar groups in General Santos City, Digos City, and Tagum City.
• Publicize the results of such investigations, including informationon the structure and operation of the Davao Death Squad and similar groups, their activities, and the participation or complicity of law enforcement officers and government officials in such activities.
• Produce and disseminate information for victims of crime that explain their legal rights, such as their right to have the state pay for autopsies in alleged murder cases and their right to be informed of the status of relevant investigations. Adopt mechanisms to encourage the filing of complaints by those whose rights have been infringed by law enforcement officers.

To the Mayors of Davao City, General Santos City, Digos City, and Tagum City

• Cease all support for anti-crime measures, including death squad activity, that entail the violation of the law.
• Investigate the involvement or complicity of law enforcement officers and other government officials in targeted killings, and reprimand them in accordance with the law.
• Direct local police to open hotlines or comparable lines of communication to receive anonymous information on targeted killings, including from eyewitnesses.
• Direct local police to conduct thorough investigations into all alleged targeted killings.
• Consult with local child rights advocates to design and implement programs to improve social service programs and shelters for street children.
• Consult with local human rights activists to design and implement rehabilitative programs for drug users, including children.

To Major Donors and External Partners, Including the United States, European Union, Japan, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank

• To keep its pledges on human rights, the rule of law, and good governance, press the Philippine government to initiate investigations into alleged targeted killings in cities, and to publicize the results of its investigations and plans to dismantle the Davao Death Squad and other similar groups or revoke technical assistance provided to security forces in the Philippines.
• Publicly criticize statements by Philippine government officials that appear to support killings and other unlawful means in combating crime.
• Consider giving financial support to local nongovernmental organizations that provide legal and other services to street children and families of victims of death squad and other extrajudicial killings, and those who provide rehabilitative programs to drug users, including children.
• Offer to provide or fund external law enforcement assistance with investigations.

To the United States Government

• Instruct the Manila-based Senior Law Enforcement Advisor of the US Department of Justice’s Criminal Division’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) to press the Philippine National Police to conduct investigations into targeted killings. ICITAP should work with the PNP to expand its model police stations program to Mindanao, and publicly clarify that its crime scene investigation programs are not open to law enforcement officers implicated in death squad activity.
• Encourage the Millennium Challenge Corporation to specifically include the Philippines’ track record in prosecuting targeted killings as one of the indicators in determining the country’s progress in the areas of civil liberties, political rights, accountability, and the rule of law. The Millennium Challenge Corporation should condition future funding to the Ombudsman’s Office on the latter’s prosecution of government officials, including law enforcement officers, for involvement or complicity in targeted killings and other extrajudicial killings.
• The United Pacific Command in Hawaii, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), ICITAP, and all other US agencies that work with the PNP should vet all police officers enrolling in US-funded programs in accordance with the Leahy amendment to ensure that participants have not been implicated or complicit in targeted killings or other extrajudicial killings.