Amnesty International said that Bulacan is now the “bloodiest killing field” in the Philippines, three years after Duterte’s administration launched the brutal war on drugs.
In a report released by the London-based human rights group, province of Bulacan has the highest number of drug-related killings with 827 drug personalities killed between July 2016 and February 2019.
Aside from this, Amnesty even noted the transfer of some police commanders to the province who supervised the extra-judicial killing operation in Manila for 18 months.
“Located just north of the capital, Bulacan is a province to which a number of police commanders who previously supervise abusive operations in Manila have been transferred over the past 18 months,” the London-based group pointed out.
Amnesty also believed that the police reports used a “template” showing that the suspects allegedly resisted from the arrest.
“It’s so consistent, it’s a script,” the report cited forensic pathologist Dr. Racquel Fortun as saying.
“This report provides further indication that these extrajudicial executions, murders, unlawful killings, assaults, and unlawful detentions have been committed in the furtherance of a governmental policy to direct an attack against, at least, a part of the civilian population. These acts should, therefore, be investigated as possible crimes against humanity,” it stressed.
Data released by the Philippine National Police last year showed that more than 6,000 drug suspects were killed in the operation since 2016.
March of 2018 when President Rodrigo Duterte decided to withdraw from being a member of the International Criminal Court following the investigation to be led by United Nation regarding the EJK cases in the country. / with reports from Bombo Christian Yosores; edited by Bombo Sol Marquez
