By AR
Retired national police chief Ronald dela Rosa dared yesterday an international human rights group to file charges against him in connection with deaths and alleged abuses in the conduct of war on drugs.
“Huwag silang sige ngakngak. They should file the case if they have the evidence and we will face it,” said dela Rosa.
The official was reacting to the statement of the New York-based group Human Rights Watch that dela Rosa should be held accountable for thousands of Extra-Judicial killing under the war on drugs which targets mainly slum dwellers.
“When Ronald Dela Rosa retires on Thursday as director general of the Philippine National Police (PNP), he will leave behind a police force with a sordid human rights record unmatched since the Marcos dictatorship,” said the HRW in a statement.
“As police chief, Dela Rosa deployed the forces that have waged President Rodrigo Duterte’s murderous ‘war on drugs.’ That campaign has targeted mainly urban slum dwellers and resulted in the deaths of more than 12,000 men, women, and children by police and police-backed vigilantes,” it added.
Dela Rosa emphasized that they have not condone any wrongdoing of their men in the conduct of campaign against illegal drugs.
For instance, he said that all the Caloocan City policemen were sacked from their posts over the series of killings in the area, including the death of Kian delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz.
