{"id":81217,"date":"2016-09-18T09:50:07","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T13:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81217"},"modified":"2016-09-18T09:50:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T13:50:07","slug":"house-drops-use-phrase-extrajudicial-killings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/18\/house-drops-use-phrase-extrajudicial-killings\/","title":{"rendered":"House drops use of phrase \u2018extrajudicial killings\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Plenary Hall, House of Representatives Complex, Constitution Hills, Quezon City
(Photo: Robert Vi\u00f1as\/Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Members of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety have decided to drop the use of the phrase \u201cextrajudicial killings\u201d in all its future hearings, investigations and reports, and will instead use the term \u201cdeath under investigation\u201d of the Philippine National Police (PNP).<\/p>\n

The committee chaired by Rep. Romeo Acop (2nd District, Antipolo City) approved the motion raised by Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia who questioned the use of the term \u201cextrajudicial killing\u201d in the absence of capital punishment or death penalty in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really curious what the definition of extrajudicial killing is because extrajudicial would mean outside of the parameters of a judicial killing. But do we have such a thing as judicial killing in the Philippines? As far as I know, the last law that was passed that imposed the death penalty by lethal injection was Republic Act No. 8177. But this was repealed by R.A. 9346. And therefore right now, we don\u2019t have the death penalty in the Philippines. How could we have such a thing as a judicial killing? And yet it is now so commonly used, that even in the Senate, there was an investigation conducted by the Committee on Justice as regards extrajudicial killing,\u201d said Garcia.<\/p>\n

Garcia said her father, former Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia, had in fact authored the bill that became R.A. 8177, which was later repealed by R.A. 9346.<\/p>\n

Based on the definition of Wikipedia, Garcia said \u201cextrajudicial killing\u201d is \u201cthe killing, mainly politically motivated, of a person by governmental authorities or dominant political groups without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there is the condition of the possibility of a judicial proceeding or legal process. This definition may apply to the 10 top countries that still have capital punishment. So such a judicial proceeding or process is possible, the condition is possible. But here in the Philippines, there is no such possibility because we do not have the death penalty,\u201d Garcia explained.<\/p>\n

Garcia then moved that as far as all other investigations or reports that may be taken up by the committee, the panel shall not recognize the term \u201cextrajudicial killings,\u201d but will rather use \u201cdeath under investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay I move that as far as this committee is concerned, let it be known that at least in the House of Representatives, in the Committee on Public Order and Safety, we have found it imperative to put things in proper perspective and correctly define the issue by adopting the definition of the PNP which is death under investigation?” said Garcia.<\/p>\n

Acop said it has been moved and duly seconded that the committee will no longer use the phrase \u201cextrajudicial killing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue on \u201cextrajudicial killing\u201d was first raised during the hearing by Rep. Winston Castelo (2nd District, Quezon City) who said the highlight of the PNP crime index now is on the campaign against drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most controversial feature of that campaign is the so-called extrajudicial killings or summary execution. May we ask what is the stand of the PNP on this? Does it condone extrajudicial killings?\u201d asked Castelo.<\/p>\n

Police Director Lazarus Vargas, PNP Director for Plans, said the PNP never used the word or term \u201cextrajudicial killing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use the term death under investigation because as you\u2019ve earlier said there is no such thing as extrajudicial killing. We did not define it. It is used by organizations outside the PNP. It did not come from us,\u201d said Vargas.<\/p>\n

Vargas stressed the so-called \u201cextrajudicial killing\u201d is not part of the campaign against illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Supt. Camilo Pancratius Cascolan, Acting Director of the Directorate for Operations, said there are 1,571 deaths under investigation. He said these are not all drug-related cases. \u201cThere are still cases that we are still identifying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cascolan further said one of the things the PNP does is to investigate immediately all kinds of killings. \u201cWe do not tolerate any kind of illegal police operations,\u201d Cascolan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Members of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety have decided to drop the use of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":56543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[12246,11118],"class_list":["post-81217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-exytajudicial-killings","tag-house-of-representatives","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}