3-7-2024 (MANILA) The Philippines’ former police chief has acknowledged that human rights violations occurred during ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. Ronald dela Rosa, who served as the head of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the launch of Duterte’s crackdown, admitted that officers committed instances of abuse in the controversial campaign.
Dela Rosa’s admission, made during a Senate forum on Thursday, marks a striking shift from his previous unwavering defense of the drug war against all accusations of rights violations. Analysts suggest that his comments may have been an attempt to mitigate potential repercussions as battle lines are drawn between Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
“I did not say that there were no human rights violations occurring during the war on drugs. We acknowledge that there were cases where people’s rights have been violated, because if there weren’t, then there shouldn’t have been any cases filed against the police. There wouldn’t have been any police convicted and jailed,” Dela Rosa, now a senator, told lawmakers.
The former police chief’s testimony comes amid an ongoing investigation by the House of Representatives into the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. During the probe, family members of slain victims have testified about how police barged into their homes without warrants and killed their relatives, often on the grounds of mistaken identity.
Dela Rosa criticized the House probe, asserting that it was “not their turf” to investigate the killings. He has refused invitations from committee members to attend the inquiry, citing “inter-parliamentary courtesy” where members of the House and Senate do not meddle in each other’s affairs.
The admission is a stark contrast to Dela Rosa’s position in previous years when he proclaimed in 2021 that “no crimes against humanity” occurred during the drug war, after the International Criminal Court said it was resuming its investigation into the deaths that took place during the campaign.
The official death toll of Duterte’s drug war stands at about 6,000, according to the PNP. However, human rights organizations and independent monitors estimate the number of deaths to be significantly higher, ranging from 12,000 to more than 20,000.
Maria Ela Atienza, a professor at the University of the Philippines’ political science department, stated that Dela Rosa’s statement was likely a bid to spare himself from harsher judgment, but added that his statement “would not matter much at this point” as he enabled these human rights violations under his tenure as PNP chief.
Observers also suggested that Dela Rosa’s concession should be “taken with a grain of salt” as lines have been drawn between the Marcos and Duterte factions in the lead-up to next year’s midterm elections, where Dela Rosa is expected to aim for re-election.
