Pubdate: Thu, 08 Sep 2005
Source: Philippine Star (Philippines)
Copyright: PhilSTAR Daily Inc. 2005
Contact:  http://www.philstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/622
Author: Edith Regalado
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Davao+Death+Squad
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rodrigo+Duterte
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Summary+Execution
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Philippines

DUTERTE ORDERS REGIONAL NBI TO INVESTIGATE EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS

DAVAO CITY- Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Southern Mindanao
regional office of the National Bureau of Investigation to handle all
cases involving extra-judicial killings that have hounded this city
for a long time now.

"I am instructing the local police to forward all cases regarding
summary killings, especially those that involve prominent
personalities, so that the matter be given full attention and no one
will complain anymore that the problem has not been addressed,"
Duterte said.

Non-government organizations placed the number of those who have been
summarily executed this year alone to reach almost 200 already. But
figures also showed those who fell victims to the vigilante killings
have already been more than 1,000 since 1998. The victims in the
summary killings were mostly involved in the illegal drug trade if not
in other crimes.

The extra-judicial assassinations have been blamed on the so-called
Davao Death Squad vigilante group based mostly on the perception that
the same modus operandi had been used in carrying out the killings.
The killers were reported to have always been on board motorcycles
with their heads covered with bonnets when they pull out an
assassination task. But Duterte was quick to point out there is no
such thing as Davao Death Squad (DDS) and that the group has only been
a creation of the media. He said that the killings could be
perpetrated by either members of the different gangs in the city or by
those in the drug syndicates themselves.

The mayor also repeatedly denied any hand in the killings, saying he
has nothing to do with them and that these were not
government-sponsored endeavors.

The Davao City Police Office has lamented that despite repeated
appeals to relatives of the victims as well as witnesses in the
incidents, no one has come out to testify in the cases.

The Office of the Ombudsman for Mindanao, on the other hand, continues
with its own investigation into the summary killings, based on
statistics the local police provide. 
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