Malacañang said yesterday that the report released by the Human Rights Watch saying President Duterte can be held liable for the killings in the war against drugs has no basis.
The New York City-based HRW yesterday released the result of their four-month investigation suggesting that the Philippine National Police were involved in the alleged extrajudicial killings in the campaign.
The HRW 125-page report, titled “License to Kill,” also suggested that Duterte may be held liable for the killings and may even be brought to the international court for failure to act on them.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said there is no proof that Duterte is behind the killings.
“There is no basis that the President is behind all these killings. He is saying that there is corruption of the policemen, but that doesn’t mean that he is behind the corruption of these policemen,” Panelo said in an interview over ANC, referring to the instance when Duterte tagged the PNP as corrupt and rotten to the core due to the alleged involvement of some policemen in the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo.
He also said that the killings were actually committed by members of syndicates who are trying to silence people who can pinpoint them. (Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos)