US rights body: PH death squad killed 298 ‘weeds’

DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The US-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said that a “death squad” targeting criminal suspects in Tagum City was organized by a former mayor of the city and was responsible for nearly 300 killings in recent years.

Human Rights Watch said in a report that it had documented at least a dozen of the 298 killings from January 2007 to March 2013 based largely on accounts of former hit men, witnesses, relatives of victims and police officers in Tagum, the capital of Davao del Norte province.

The group identified the former mayor as Rey Uy, who denied the accusations in Human Rights Watch’s report “One Shot to the Head: Death Squad Killings in Tagum City, Philippines.”

Uy said the report was based on testimony coerced and paid for by drug dealers and illegal gamblers.

Human Rights Watch said President Aquino had largely ignored the killings.

But the President’s communications secretary, Herminio Coloma, said Aquino had “affirmed the government’s commitment to render justice to victims of extrajudicial killings dating back to those that were perpetrated in previous administrations.”

Coloma said cases that were dismissed by prosecutors were ordered refiled by the President and that “interagency work to complete case buildup that will meet the standards of judicial proof will be pursued vigorously.”

Compelling evidence

Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director, said there was “compelling evidence” against Uy, who reportedly called the targets—suspected drug dealers, petty criminals, street children and others—“weeds” that had to be uprooted in a “perverse form of crime control.”

Death squad members who had quit were also targets, Kine said.

“The Tagum death squad’s activities imposed a fear-enforced silence in Tagum City that allowed the killers and their bosses to literally get away with murder,” Kine said in a statement issued by Human Rights Watch after it released its 71-page report.

The group said it had sent copies of the report to Uy and various government agencies, but received no reply.

The statement said Uy, his close aides and police officers had “hired, equipped and paid for an operation that at its height consisted of a team of 14 hit men and accomplices” since his first term as mayor in 1998. His son lost the election to succeed him after he stepped down in 2013.

12 cases profiled

The group said that according to a former death squad member, hit men were paid P5,000 for each killing. Uy personally paid the hit men on at least two occasions, Human Rights Watch said.

Of the 298 killings that provincial police attributed to the death squad, Human Rights Watch managed to profile 12, which happened between 2011 and 2013.

Those killed included two boys aged 9 and 12 who frequented Freedom Park at the back of Tagum City Hall and were accused of theft and other petty crimes. The boys were killed separately on April 12, 2011, according to the report.

Also profiled were the murders of businessman Roberto Onlos, 62, in October 2011, allegedly due to disputes over mining in a tribal land; businesswoman Alicia Ang, 59, in August 2012; and journalist Rogelio Butalid, 46, in December 2013.

All the hits were carried out by motorcycle-riding gunmen, the report said.

Kine noted that in one instance, the mother of one victim claimed to have been “warned” by Uy himself for the victim to get out of Tagum City.

Four killers

Human Rights Watch also interviewed four admitted members of the death squad—Romnick Minta, Jomarie Abayon, Marlon Hepalago and another whose name the group did not disclose.

In a video played back at a news conference, Minta said they were sometimes ordered to get “two to three heads a week.”

Uy laughed off the report. “Everybody knows the house of the mayor, and they come soliciting help for this and that problem. It is easy to point to the mayor,” he said.

He denied having a hand in the killings, saying he was shocked at how his political rivals could hatch stories to destroy his name.

“They’re making up stories to destroy my reputation. They’re afraid because I’m running again and they don’t want that to happen,” he said.

Uy said he got the blame for almost anything that went wrong in Tagum under the present administration.

“That’s gross,” he said.

Vengeance killings

Uy suggested that the killings were “vengeance” from the victims of the criminals and rivalry between crime gangs.

“Certain individuals here coerced the so-called witnesses, gave them money to make up stories,” he said.

“They don’t want me to return to power because if I come back, they will lose their businesses,” he said.—With reports from Julie M. Aurelio in Manila and The Associated Press

Originally posted at 3:35 pm | Wednesday, May 21, 2014

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