The Marcos administration should initiate sweeping reforms in Philippine law enforcement in response to recent congressional hearings on police corruption and abuse in the "war on drugs," Human Rights Watch said today.
In recent weeks, witnesses testified before four committees in the House of Representatives about extrajudicial killings committed by the police during anti-drug raids since 2016. Cases involved senior officials with close ties to then-President Rodrigo Duterte. The Interior Department should investigate allegations of police misconduct and cooperate with the Justice Department to file approriate charges against the police officers implicated.
"Recent testimony in Congress brought to light the murderous police infrastructure during Duterte's 'war on drugs,'" said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "President Marcos should take immediate steps for meaningful reforms to the Philippine National Police and other police agencies."
On October 5, Royina Garma, the former police chief of the city of Cebu, whom Duterte appointed to head the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, testified that Duterte asked her in 2016 to help organize a national anti-drug campaign patterned after his campaign as mayor of Davao City. Garma said the campaign involved payments of between 20,000 Philippine pesos (about US$350) and a million Philippine pesos (about US$17,500) to the officer or officers involved in the killing of a drug suspect.
On October 11, a self-confessed "drug lord," Kerwin Espinosa, alleged that shortly before testifying at a Senate hearing in 2016, then-police chief and now Senator Rogelio "Bato" dela Rosa threatened to harm him and his family if he did not implicate then-Senator Leila de Lima on charges that she protected drug lords. That allegation led to the Senate stripping de Lima of her chairmanship of the Senate committee that was holding a hearing on the nascent "drug war" violence. Philippine prosecutors subsequently filed charges against de Lima, and she was held in police detention for nearly seven years before the courts fully exonerated her in June 2024. Dela Rosa has denied the allegations against him.
The congressional hearings revealed that government institutions and resources were harnessed to enforce the murderous "war on drugs" and undermine the critics of those policies, Human Rights Watch said. The "drug war" has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people but with almost zero accountability. "Drug-related" killings by the police still occur under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Juanito Victor Remulla, the newly appointed head of the Interior Department, has administrative control of the police. He should rescind internal Philippine National Police circulars for the "drug war," particularly "Oplan Double Barrel," the police anti-drug campaign during the Duterte administration, which remains in effect, Human Rights Watch said. Remulla should also reorient the Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police to give it more power and authority to investigate and address serious abuses by police officers.
The Justice Department should act on the congressional testimony by initiating its own investigations and appropriate prosecutions. President Marcos should make changes to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which is under the Office of the President and was a key police partner in the anti-drug campaign. The president should also ensure cooperation with the Internatiotional Criminal Court's investigation into these killings.
"The Interior and Justice ministries need to follow-up on the congressional revelations and credibly investigate these ghastly crimes," Lau said. "Concerned foreign governments and donors should press the Philippine government to respond promptly to ensure that state institutions are not misused to perpetrate such horrifying abuses ever again."
