Bayan Slams Mayor for Continued Killings in Davao City

Five more people were killed extra-judicially allegedly by the Davao Death Squad, prompting a militant group and human rights organizations to raise the alarm that these supposed vigilantes are on the rampage again this year. Last year, vigilantes killed 95 people many of them minors thus making the city the “crime capital” of the South.  

BY BULATLAT.COM

DAVAO CITY – The militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) last week criticized this city’s mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, for his alleged inability to stop the extra-judicial killings that have made the city notorious. At the same time, the militant group said it expects the killings to escalate this year.

Just last week, five more such killings – usually perpetrated by men in motorcycle, known as the Davao Death Squad – took place in just two days, with three of the murders occurring in just one day.

According to reports, two of the victims last week were witnesses to the murder of controversial broadcaster Juan “Jun” Pala, who was shot dead late last year.

A monitoring by human rights groups and child advocates in Davao City indicated that 95 people were victims of extra-judicial killings last year. Many of the victims were minors and most of them come from the poor.

"As the year opens, there are indications that cases of summary executions will have an alarming increase this year,” said Jeppie Ramada, the spokesman of Bayan in the Southern Mindanao region. This increase, as well as the rise in killings the past few years, are an “indicator that criminality or drug-related cases will be used by politicians to justify summary executions against political rivals especially that election is fast approaching,” Ramada said.

He said the killings “manifest the debility of the Davao City Police Office and Task Force Davao” and that these “consequently reflect Duterte’s lack of political will to comprehensively address the problem on criminality.”

Ramada said progressive organizations such as Bayan and Karapatan that are critical of government and politicians have also become vulnerable to these summary executions, as indicated in a number of abductions and murders victimizing activists in the region the past few months.

Ramada pointed out that, contrary to the promises of Duterte that a tough anti-crime measure such as summary executions – which the mayor had publicly praised in the past – would instill fear in criminals and those who are criminally inclined, the reality is that drug abuse, drug pushing and other crimes continue to occur in Davao City.

"Up to now, we still have no assurances that the drug problem or criminality in the city will be totally curtailed,” he said. Instead, he said, “the tolerance of the mayor of summary executions has resulted in massive human rights violations in the guise of curbing criminality and drug problems. It has also instituted summary killings as a legitimate practice here in Davao City.”

Ramada said there is likewise a need to review the mandate of the Davao police as well as Task Force Davao, which is composed of soldiers tasked by Duterte to supposedly help the police keep the peace in the city after the airport and wharf bombings early last year.

He said the millions of peace and order funds Duterte has been funneling into the coffers of the police and the task force have not borne fruit. “They have been inutile in putting big time criminals or drug lords in jail. Moreover, they have been proven ineffective in solving cases of summary executions in Davao City,” Ramada said. Bulatlat.com 

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