Image from Leni Robredo’s website - Vice President Leni Robredo urges authorities to start probes on extra judicial killings
- There have been 71 deaths related to drugs since President Rodrigo Duterte’s inauguration
- Lawmakers have earlier filed resolutions to call for probe on these killings
Vice President Leni Robredo renewed her calls for authorities to “seriously investigate” the rising number of extrajudicial deaths in the country.
“The rise in extra judicial killings is a call for all of us to uphold every person’s right to due process. Each Filipino that was killed over an alleged crime was denied their right to a fair trial, and those lives can never be returned to their loved ones,” the vice president said in a statement released on Wednesday, July 20.
Known for her pro-human rights stance, Robredo further said: “We should not foster a culture of fear in our society — one that tacitly accepts death and one that does not give respect to human life.”
Recently, there have been succeeding cases of extra judicial killings especially those who are suspectedly involved in illegal drug trade. President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration raged war against drugs, which is his primary campaign promise when he ran for office.
Before Duterte took his oath on June 30, there have been more than 40 alleged drug suspects who have been killed.
Based on Inquirer’s “The Kill List”, there have been 71 deaths related to drugs since Duterte’s inauguration. Nine were identified by aliases while the remaining 33 are unidentified.
Lawmakers Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat and Senator Leila de Lima has earlier sought for a probe into the killings of drug suspects.
But Davao del Norte Representative Pantaleon Alvarez, the presumptive House Speaker, said that Congress should be better off passing laws.
“Congress needs to pass too many laws to waste its time on an investigation on something that should be left in the hands of the Department of Justice and the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation],” he previously said.
He also said: ““I don’t want any insinuation that the drug lords are using members of Congress to investigate the police so the latter would go slow on their campaign against illegal drugs.”
Post a Comment