Dela Rosa must be held accountable for war on drugs killings, says HRW

Outgoing Philippine National Police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa led the Duterte administration’s war on drugs that brought a huge number of deaths, and he cannot just step down without being held liable for this, Human Rights Watch said.

HRW’s Philippine researcher, Carlos Conde, said that the campaign against the proliferation of illegal drugs has left “a sordid human rights record.”

“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,” Conde said on Wednesday.

He added that Dela Rosa “has shown enthusiasm” in leading a “murderous drug war” that battered the poor the most.

“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 12,000men, women, and children by police and police-backed vigilantes,” he said.

Conde criticized Dela Rosa for choosing to ignore cries of human rights violations, saying the latter defended their actions by saying “the deaths were proof of an uncompromising police approach to drug crimes.”

Conde said, “He slammed calls by lawmakers for an investigation into the killings as “legal harassment,” saying it “dampens the morale” of police officers.”

He added that the International Criminal Court has started its probe into the killings and the “growing momentum inside the United Nations for a separate UN inquiry” will eventually make way for Dela Rosa to be held accountable “for the bloody campaign he so zealously endorsed.”

(DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 04/ 18 /18)