Category: Human Rights

Davao City’s ‘ghost employees’ early funders of Duterte’s EJKs

Ellen


The House Quad Committee (Quadcom), which has uncovered gruesome information, in its investigation of extrajudicial killings (EJKs), is now into tracing the money trail that financed former president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs.

Quadcom co-chairs Reps. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr. and Dan Fernandez said that the mega-panel composed of the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order and Safety, Human Rights, and Public Accounts, will seek the assistance of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) in tracing the illicit transactions.

Former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office General Manager Royina Garma, who also played a major role in Duterte’s bloody program, had given information on the rewards system which was patterned to Davao drug war template that she helped implement when she was a Station Commander in one of the police stations in Davao.

It would also be helpful for the Quadcom to retrieve the interviews given by self-confessed Duterte Death Squad leader Arturo Lascañas and member Edgar Matobato.

Lascañas and Matobato’s affidavits on their role in Duterte’s drug war have already been submitted to the International Criminal Court currently investigating the former president’s crimes against humanity.

In VERA Files interview with Lascañas in April 2017, he said he was collecting P68,000 every month from the Davao City government as DDS member.

Needless to say, there is no such item as DDS in the city government’s payroll. They were “ghost” employees.

What they did was come up with 10 to 12 names that were listed as employees with salaries ranging from P5,000 to P7,000 a month.
Lascañas said only two or three names on the list were real people. “The rest is imbento na lang namin na pangalan (We invented the names of the rest). They got some of the names from the telephone directory yellow pages.

Matobato, a former member of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit in Davao said that he was on the city’s payroll as a member of the Civil Security Unit but only worked to kill individuals who he was told were “criminals.”

Aside from what he got as “ghost employee,” Lascañas said, he also received P50,000 every month from Duterte through Sonny Buenaventura, bringing his collection to P118,000. This was over and above his P38,000 monthly salary as an SPO3, he said.

The ghost employees practice was a regular feature during both father and daughter terms as Davao city mayor. Rodrigo Duterte terms covered from 2001 to 2010, then 2013 to 2016. Sara’s years were 2010 to 2013, and 2016 to 2022.

Flagged by COA

VERA Files had reported that the Commission on Audit (COA) has noticed the unusually large number of contractual workers of the Davao City government.

The COA had discovered that the salaries of some contractual or job-order employees in Davao City were being received by persons “other than those authorized payees” because the signatures in the receipts were different from those in the payroll.

This is the reason why Duterte hates COA. He lambasted COA in several of his speeches when he was president calling it “pure bullshit.”
The hiring of ghost employees was one of the charges in the impeachment complaint filed against the President by Magdalo Partylist Rep. Gary Alejano on March 16,2017 which did not prosper in the Duterte-controlled House of Representatives.

The failure of the impeachment complaint was cited by Alejano and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV as reason why they had to go to the ICC(they were the first to do so) to make Duterte accountable for his crimes against humanity.

The audit report also formed the basis for the plunder case Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV filed against Duterte on May 5, 2016. It is still there doing a Mona Lisa (They just lie there, and they die there) under a Duterte-appointed Ombudsman.

This column was also carried by VERA Files and Canadian-Filipino.net

Families appeal to authorities: Return James and Felix to us

Ellen

It has been over a month since James Jazmines disappeared. It will be a month on Saturday in the case of Felix Salaveria, Jr.

No one disappears in the normal scheme of things in this world. Life’s cycle consists of birth, childhood, adulthood, old age, death. Some get to complete all the stages, some are not so lucky and skip some stages. But nowhere is there a stage when one simply disappears. Unless something drastic happened to disrupt that cycle as in the case of Jazmines and Salaveria.

The families of the two point to government agents as behind the dastardly act. Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said “The tell-tale signs of state involvement in the abductions of Jazmines and Salaveria are there.”

In their demand for the authorities to surface the two, they narrated that James attended Felix’s 66th birthday dinner with friends at a restaurant in Tabaco City, Albay, on August 23.

“After the celebration, James left on his bicycle and has not been seen since. Five days later, and after he had reported that James had gone missing, Felix was abducted. According to eyewitnesses, he was shoved into a silver van by men in plain clothes and later a group of uniformed policemen entered his home and removed personal belongings, including his cell phone and laptop. “

Karapatan has released CCTV footages obtained during a search mission last September 11-13, 2024 in Albay that showed the abduction by men in plain clothes of Salaveria Jr. near his home in Barangay Cobo, Tabaco City, Albay on the morning of August 28.

“An operation like this is highly organized and it was done in broad daylight, indicating the brazen character of the crime. The abduction of Jazmines and Salaveria bears these indicators which are similar to previous cases of such abductions committed by State forces. Several questions remain as the two remain missing, and this includes questions on State actors’ duty to investigate such incidents. So far, no government official has publicly spoken on their abduction,” Palabay said.

The families have launched a campaign to demand the authorities to investigate the abductions, return the two safely to their families and bring those responsible for their disappearances to justice.
Who are James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr?

James is a 1978 graduate of the Philippine Science High School and a former BS Psychology student of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He served as information officer of the League of Filipino Students from 1977 to the early 1980s. He later became the executive director of the Amado V. Hernandez Resource Center, a cultural institution, from 1984 to 1988. From 1988 to 1992, he served as information officer of the Kilusang Mayo Uno labor center.

Up to the mid-2000s, he was the information technology (IT) consultant of a development NGO and has been working freelance in the IT sector since then. He was known in his community as quiet and unassuming, but also a frequent biker.
Salaveria, a 1976 graduate of San Beda High School and a former sociology major at the University of the East in Manila, is a founding member and former president of Cycling Advocates (CYCAD), a group that promotes biking as a low-cost, healthy and non-polluting form of transportation. He is also a founding member of Tunay na Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa mga Katutubo (Tabak) and Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino (Katribu), groups advocating for indigenous people’s rights. He was likewise a member of the staff of the now defunct Ethnic Studies and Development Center’s Minority Rights Advocacy Program.

In Bgy. Cobo, Tabaco City, Salaveria became known as an avid eco-waste management advocate who encouraged the proper disposal of waste. He coordinated with other groups based in Tabaco for alternative ways of transporting waste for conversion to compost for permaculture, and even donated a bike for this purpose. In addition to his waste disposal advocacy, he also maintained a small community garden in his residence. He was well-liked in his community both for his advocacies and for being a kind and helpful neighbor.

Palaybay said the state’s silence on the disappearance of the two contravenes Republic Act No. 10353, or the law against enforced disappearance that has been in existence since 2012.

Under RA 10353, state security forces are required to issue certifications on the whereabouts of a missing person. They are also required to disclose the location of all detention facilities and allow inspection by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). State authorities responsible for enforced disappearance can be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The families said they are targeting 1,000.00 signatures in five days for their petition, which they will present to the president, Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos, Philippine National Police Chief Rommel Francisco Marbil and Armed Forces Chief Romeo Brawner Jr.

This column also appeared in VERA Files, Malaya Business Insight and Canadian-Fil.net

‘Ridiculous,’ SC says on drug war records as ‘national security’

Ellen

Several times, President Rodrigo Duterte has proudly taken responsibility for the killings in his bloody campaign against illegal drugs. It goes without saying, therefore, that the prosecution of the drug-related killings would have to reach his level.

If he thinks that citing “national security” will save him and the top officials who implemented his war on drugs, including his first police chief, now Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, from being accountable for all those killings, he is wrong.

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) already used that line in the 2018 case of Aileen Almora, et al. Vs. Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, et al./Sr. Ma. Juanita R. Daño, et al. Vs. The Philippine National Police, et al. and the Supreme Court vehemently rejected it.
The Supreme Court’s words: “It is simply ridiculous to claim that these information and documents on police operations against drug pushers and users involve national security matter.”

In his Talk to the People last May 31, Duterte lengthily defended the Philippine National Police in refusing to make public records of police operations in the war on drugs.

He said: “Now this is really a lesson for the human rights; everyday until now nandiyan ‘yan. I suggest that you go to the police and look into the records of these deaths. Now gusto ninyong kunin, may — hindi namin maibigay lahat not because we are hiding some facts that [are] known to us, unknown to you. Eh kasali na dito ‘yong — eh national security issue ‘to eh kagaya rin ng mga NPA. We have records that those who have died but who have derogatory records in our files and may mga references sila na tao and what they do, we cannot divulge it to anybody but only to the military and to the police.”

He said he himself has not asked for it. “I do not even know kung sino ‘yang mga ‘yan. I do not ask [for] it and I do not bother to really go out of my way knowing because kasali ako sa mga tao na hindi alam. What I get is the result of the operations. But as to the basis and to the people involved and suspects and ‘yong mga references nila at ‘yong mga sources ng information, this cannot be revealed,” he added.

He further said: “As a matter of fact, ang sinabi ko itong mga pulis o military who perform their duties and had to kill their adversaries, lalo na sa droga pati itong mga NPA, hindi ho namin puwede ibigay lahat. You can go into the… maybe query as to how the battle was fought, how the gunfight started. But pero kung sabihin mo what prompted the police and the military to go into this kind of operation based on their reports and collated mga dossier, hindi ho ninyo puwedeng pakialaman ‘yan. Truth — as a matter of fact, sabihin ko totoo ‘yan. Maski tanungin ninyo, ni hindi ako minsan nagtanong kung ano-ano ‘yan.It’s because I know that it’s just confidential. And kung hindi nila ipresenta sa akin, I do not ask for it.
“Kaya ako mismo hindi naka — nakakakita ng mga records na ‘yan. And I can understand when the military and the police would withhold them kasi hindi talaga dapat malaman ninyo. Iyan ang na … you know … hindi dito sabihin mo na public documents. “
It is Duterte’s choice if he is not interested to see the documentation of the killings based on his orders. But the public should not be prevented from knowing the truth.
The Supreme Court was very clear about this when the OSG refused to submit documents demanded by the relatives of the victims which include, among others, list of persons killed in legitimate police operations from July 1, 2016 to Nov. 30, 2018; list of deaths under investigation from July 1, 2016 to November 30, 2017; list of Chinese and Fil-Chinese drug lords who have been neutralized; and, list of drugs involved, whether shabu, cocaine, marijuana, or opioids.
The OSG unilaterally categorized the documents and claimed that those under Category 1 “contain very sensitive information with law enforcement and national security implications.”

The Supreme Court reprimanded the OSG, saying it “cannot unilaterally arrogate to itself the power to determine which documents it should furnish petitioners.”

The High Court also reminded the OSG of its earlier Resolution that “the requested information and documents do not obviously involve state secrets affecting national security.”

“The information and documents relate to routine police operations involving violations of laws against the sale or use of illegal drugs. There is no showing that the country’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty, independence, or foreign relations will be compromised or prejudiced by the release of these information and documents to this Court or even to the public. These information and documents do not involve rebellion, invasion, terrorism, espionage, infringement of our sovereignty or sovereign rights by foreign powers, or any military, diplomatic or state secret involving national security,“ it added.

The High Court declared: “It is simply ridiculous to claim that these information and documents on police operations against drug pushers and users involve national security matter.”

Ridiculous, indeed!

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This column appeared also in ABS-CBN online and VERA Files

Why does DOJ need PNP consent to probe cops in drug war?

Ellen

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra is very grateful and called it a “very significant milestone” because it “did not happen in previous years.”

This is no different from President Duterte thanking China for allowing Filipino fishermen to fish in the area of Scarborough Shoal, a Philippine territory. But that’s another topic that requires a separate discussion.

This so-called “very significant milestone” came after a meeting with newly installed PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar who said this is being done to dispel allegations that they are hiding facts on the killings from the public to protect the law enforcers involved in carrying out Duterte’s brutal banner program that has elicited international concern and condemnation.

No one is biting the bait, especially the families of the victims and their lawyers.

Not Joel Butuyan of Centerlaw, which represents families of the victims of the drug war in 28 barangays in San Andres Bukid.

Butuyan said: “The fact that the PNP’s consent is required for the DOJ to investigate the deaths in the hands of policemen is in itself anomalous.”

“The DOJ is supposed to have unobstructed leeway to conduct investigations when deaths occur in the hands of policemen. In fact, under DOJ rules, when death occurs during a police investigation, the police are required to submit all relevant documents to the prosecutors and the prosecutors are mandated to conduct a preliminary investigation. So, all deaths in the hands of policemen should have been investigated by the DOJ, and the police should submit all documents, not just the 61 deaths in question,” he added.

The 61 cases constitute less than 1% of the more than 7,000 that the government uses as the number of deaths during police anti-illegal drugs operations. Human rights advocates say the numbers could be higher.

The 61 cases, Guevarra said, had been reviewed and evaluated by the PNP Internal Affairs Service which had found administrative/criminal liability on the part of law enforcement agents.

Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)-Philippines that also represents several families of victims of Duterte’s drug war, is wary that “it might be another tokenistic and cynical mirage, a puny, even if sincere, desire at real institutional reforms that actually go far beyond them alone.”

He said victims, families and witnesses in the so-called drug war and rights advocates “cannot be euphoric at this supposed shift.”

“With grounded disbelief, they should see it for what it might be: a finger to plug the hole in the dam i.e. to deflect and dissipate overwhelming criticisms over the lack of immediate, fair and comprehensive accountability,” he said in a statement.

“That only 61 cases are currently seen with ‘clear liability’ out of the thousands of cases that are supposedly within the purview of the drug war panel review is simply incredible and scanty when seen in the context of the records, experience and reality over time,” he noted.

“The disclosure of the records, given the inordinate delay, the hemming and hedging, the issues of transparency, impartiality and independence, and the insultingly petty number to be made available, may even eventually validate the view that it may have been sanitized and cherry picked to be used as possible ‘showcases,’ inconclusive or not emblematic as they may turn out to be,” Olalia said.

The international Human Rights Watch describes the PNP-DOJ collaboration as “a breakthrough” while noting that Metro Manila police chief Eleazar was a key enforcer of Duterte’s drug war.

With only five months before his retirement, HRW said: “If Eleazar is serious about these reforms, he should ensure the police’s full cooperation with investigators into the ‘drug war’ killings and take more concrete steps to hold abusive officers accountable.”

Families of drug-war related extra-judicial killings had long ago demanded access to police records of the operation but were denied despite repeated orders from the Supreme Court.

Finally in May 2019, the PNP and the Office of the Solicitor General submitted to the High Court 289 compact discs supposedly containing information on the 20,322 drug-related deaths as mentioned in the government’s 2017 Accomplishment Report.

But the documents turned out to be “rubbish,” CenterLaw said, as discs contained irrelevant non-drug related cases like a “love triangle” in which the suspect was the live-in partner who got jealous of the deceased victim and a killing caused by a misunderstanding over a videoke song.

CenterLaw accused the PNP and OSG of resorting to “underhanded machinations.”

“What the OSG and PNP virtually want is for the Supreme Court and the petitioners to utterly waste valuable time and resources examining case files which are totally irrelevant and, in fact, absolutely rubbish insofar as the instant cases are concerned,” it said.

The timing of this PNP-DOJ cooperation makes us suspicious that it is more for the consumption of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that is expected to release its decision on the result of the preliminary examination of the situation in the Philippines before Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda retires on June 15.

The ICC, in its website, states: “Specifically, it has been alleged that since 1 July 2016, thousands of persons have been killed for reasons related to their alleged involvement in illegal drug use or dealing. While some of such killings have reportedly occurred in the context of clashes between or within gangs, it is alleged that many of the reported incidents involved extra-judicial killings in the course of police anti-drug operations.”

Once the ICC decides to open an investigation, investigators would start collecting evidence. Summons would be issued. Refusal to cooperate could lead to issuance of warrants of arrest and freezing of assets.

The Rome Statute that created the ICC provides that it is the duty of every state to exercise its jurisdiction over those responsible for committing international crimes. The ICC can intervene only when it sees that the government is “unable or unwilling” to “genuinely” carry out the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators.

Guevarra, addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council last Feb. 24 said: ”We reject any attempt by any external entity to assume jurisdiction over internal matters which are being addressed more than adequately by our national institutions and authorities.”

Does access to records of 61 out of more than 7,000 cases enough to disprove the inability and unwillingness of the Duterte government to prosecute those involved in the killings of thousands upon the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte?

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This column appeared also in:
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VERA Files

Malaya Business Insight

Guevarra’s speech reveals concern on ICC probe of Duterte

Ellen
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra (inset) addressed the U.N.Human Rights Council.

Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s bravado that he is not worried about the complaints of crimes against humanity filed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) against him and officials involved in the government’s bloody drug war, the speech of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last Feb. 24 betrayed the administration’s concern about it.

Toward the end of Guevarra’s speech delivered online, he enumerated what the Philippine government has done on the human rights aspect of Duterte’s brutal war on drugs. He said: “The PH strongly emphasizes its legal and judicial system, its domestic accountability mechanisms are functioning as they should. We reject any attempt by any external entity to assume jurisdiction over internal matters which are being addressed more than adequately by our national institutions and authorities.”

Are they concerned that outgoing ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s report expected to come out before the end of her term on June 15 would recommend investigation of the more than 50 communications that her office had been examining since 2018 and from which it has found “reasonable basis to believe” that crimes against humanity were committed in Duterte’s drug war?

Guevarra’s assertion that “(the Philippine) legal and judicial system, its domestic accountability mechanisms are functioning” stands hollow beside the track record of insolence that government agencies had shown in their response to cries for justice and accountability by families of victims and human rights groups.

A reliable government source said they have investigated less than 2% of the more than 5,000 drug-related killings admitted by police authorities.

Private firm Center for International Law (CenterLaw), which represents families of the victims of the drug war in 28 barangays in San Andres Bukid, Manila in the cases filed before the Supreme Court, accused in 2019 the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) of “underhanded machinations” when they submitted what the lawyers described as “rubbish” documents unrelated to the drug war when they were compelled by the High Court to provide the petitioners’ records of police operations.

The Rome Statute that created the ICC provides that it is the duty of every State to exercise its jurisdiction over those responsible for committing international crimes. The ICC can intervene only when it sees that the government is “unable or unwilling” to “genuinely” carry out the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators.

Guevarra admitted that there were lapses in the police operations against illegal drugs and tried to show that the government is doing something about it.

In that same Feb. 24 speech, the justice secretary said: “Our initial and preliminary findings confirm that in many of these cases, law enforcement agents asserted that the subject of anti-drug operations resisted arrest or attempted to draw a weapon and fight back. Yet, no full examination of the weapon recovered was conducted. No verification of its ownership was undertaken. No request for ballistic examination or paraffin test was pursued until its completion.

It was also noted that, among others, in more than half of the records reviewed, the law enforcement agents involved failed to follow standard protocols pertaining to coordination with other agencies and the processing of the crime scene.

“We have referred these initial findings to our national police authorities and we have been informed that the appropriate internal investigations of thousands of these incidents have been conducted. And scores of police officers have been recommended for administrative and criminal action. It is now the immediate task of the review panel to ensure that these recommendations have been acted upon and carried out by the proper disciplinarian authorities. And that measures are adopted to minimize loss of lives during legitimate law enforcement operations against illegal drugs. “

The ICC has shown that it is not easily impressed. In the case of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, leader of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) and former vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who was arrested in 2008 and convicted in 2016 (overturned two years later) of the charges of crimes against humanity, the international court dismissed as “grossly inadequate and not genuine” the supposed actions that the government undertook.

ICC also said: “Notably the Chamber found that the limited measures Bemba took were ‘primarily motivated’ by his desire to counter public allegation and rehabilitate the public image of the MLC.”
Doesn’t that sound familiar?