(Eagle News) — There are no extrajudicial killings in the country.
This was the statement of the Philippine National Police on Monday, as media reports labelling all killings as extrajudicial continued to proliferate.
In a press conference, the PNP clarified that extrajudicial killings were necessarily “state-sponsored.”
No killing in the country, however, they said, was state-sponsored.
“It is the media that is insistent in (using the term),” PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa said.
Chief Supt. Augusto Marquez, head of the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, said that it was also not true that more than 7000 had been killed in the government’s war on drugs.
According to Marquez, from the 6011 homicide cases from July 2015 to March 24, only 23.2 percent or 1398 were drug-related.
More than ten percent, or 13.8 percent, were completely not drug-related, while 3785 cases or 63.5 percent were killings still under investigation.
“Gusto lang namin to set the records straight. Gusto lang namin icorrect ang maling reporting so the Filipino community and international community cannot be misled by false reports,” Dela Rosa said.
According to the PNP chief, Vice President Leni Robredo was among those disseminating wrong reports.
In an almost-six-minute video shown in a side-event of a United Nations event in Vienna, Austria, Robredo said that “over 7000” had been killed in the government’s drug war that had left people “hopeless and helpless.”
She also described what she said was a “palit-ulo” scheme that sees direct relatives of a drug suspect arrested by police if the latter is not in the house upon their arrival.
The PNP has denied Robredo’s version of the scheme.
“Obviously naman ginamit niya yung term na yun diba? Sabi niya 7000 ejk, so she is one of them na mali ang reporting…Hopefully that report will (reach) her positively. How I wish she should take it positively,” he said.
“Hindi po kami naninira sa kaniya. Mataas ang respeto namin sa kanya bilang bise presidente. Pero ang gusto namin, macorrect ang sinasabi niya,” he added.