Press Release
April 22, 2017

STATEMENT OF SEN. LEILA M. DE LIMA ON REUTERS' SPECIAL REPORT ON THE DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION'S WAR ON DRUGS

CUSTODIAL CENTER, Camp Crame, QC- Senator Leila M. de Lima released the following statement today on Reuters' special report "Police describe kill rewards, staged crimes scenes in Duterte's drug war" published last April 18:

"The secrecy that shrouds the nationwide operations of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), now transformed into the Presidential Death Squad of President Duterte, will not last for long. Already, brave and honorable men of the Philippine National Police (PNP) are breaking their silence to tell the world the truth behind the assassins and killers spawned in Davao's underbelly.

"That the DDS is now embedded in the national police force as the vigilante death squad of the President is only the logical action coming out of Duterte's policy of summary executions in Davao, and how this can be transplanted to the national stage once he has adopted said policy at the national level when he became President.

"I salute the brave and honorable men and women of the PNP for giving testimonial proof that the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) are indeed state-sponsored and carried out upon direct orders of the President. With DDS insider testimonies coming from former DDS members Arturo Lascañas and Edgar Matobato, as well as confirmation coming from PNP officials, there ought to be no longer any doubt that there exists an international criminal case for crimes against humanity against the President, his PNP Chief and commanders, and high ranking cabinet officials and congressional allies.

"It is just a matter of time before all of the truth comes out in all its horrifying detail, of how a President took hold of a nation's consciousness to promote social cleansing as a final solution to the nation's problems, the same way Hitler hypnotized the German people. As the truth gradually comes out, let us learn from history and know that final solutions that consist of state-sponsored murders in massive scale, even if not in Holocaust proportions, can only lead to the destruction of a nation's social, moral, and cultural fabric. Now that evidence of this continues to surface, we must ask ourselves if we want to go on supporting the carnage.

"Human rights is universal. It is not a fashion statement. Sooner or later, the judgment of history of how we treated our fellow human beings, whether we fought for them or cheered on their slaughterers, will catch up with us. When that time comes, we must make sure we are standing on the side of justice."

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