‘Targeted’ EJK probe under way —Napolcom – BusinessWorld Online
THE National Police Commission (Napolcom) said on Wednesday it is holding a “targeted investigation” into alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs) linked to former President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs.
“We’re actually doing a targeted investigation on the EJKs,” Napolcom Vice-Chairman Rafael Vicente R. Calinisan told lawmakers. “We have not announced it, but we are actually doing our homework.”
The Philippine government estimates that more than 6,000 died under the campaign, according to a Facebook infographics published in June 2022 by RealNumbersPH, which is operated by the inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs. Human rights groups, however, say the death toll could be as high as 30,000.
Mr. Duterte made a crackdown on the illegal drug trade a key plank of his election campaign, promising to kill 100,000 criminals in his first six months in office and throw so many bodies in Manila Bay that the fish there “will grow fat.”
In March, the Philippines surrendered Mr. Duterte to the International Criminal Court at The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity in connection with his bloody war on drugs. His trial is scheduled for September. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio