Senator Leila De Lima on Saturday slammed an independent probe by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which has concluded that there is no massive human rights violations in the country.
“The so-called ‘independent probe’ conducted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government is an insult not only to human rights workers but also, most especially, to the Filipino people at a time when the Philippines joins the international community in the observance of Human Rights Day today,” De Lima said in a statement.
Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing III, who presented the result of the probe on Friday, said there will be human rights violations in the country but it is not massive.
“There will be human rights violations. Is it massive or not? Indications based on the case showed that it is not massive… indicatively there is no human rights violations or it is at the barest minimum,” Densing said.
De Lima did not agree with the statement, citing the increasing number of people killed daily.
“No one can deny these daily killings, and the criminals are getting bolder and bolder each day. To say there is no massive human rights violations is like telling us we do not have a traffic problem in the country,” said De Lima, who served as chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights during the time of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Like the traffic problem, our people are outraged at these continued killings done in the name of government’s all-out war against drugs,” she added.
De Lima also criticized the DILG’s recommendation to create a Philippine National Police (PNP) manual, which should be available in every police station.
“It would seem that the DILG or the team that recommended ‘the creation of a PNP manual which should be available in every police station’ is not even aware of the Revised PNP Operational Procedures promulgated in 2013. This is shocking,” she said.
De Lima said police should know this manual “by heart,” as this will guide them in doing their operations while respecting the human rights and dignity of suspected law offenders. —ALG, GMA News
Source:GMA NEWS
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