Canada court rejects ex-PH cop’s residency plea over drug war

INQUIRER STOCK PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — A federal court in Canada has denied the application for permanent residence of former Philippine National Police officer Josue Limmong Ahuday for participating in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs.

In a decision dated Jan. 7, Judge Angus Grant said the Immigration Division (ID) of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board did not err in rejecting Ahuday’s petition.

“The ID reasonably determined that Mr. Ahuday made a voluntary, knowing and significant contribution to the crimes against humanity committed by the drug units of the PNP as part of [former] President Duterte’s war on drugs, and is therefore inadmissible to Canada,” the decision read.

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According to the court, Ahuday was assigned in December 2016 to the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) of the Jose Abad police station in Manila, near the Tondo district where cases of extrajudicial killings were reported. Ahuday worked in the DEU until February 2017.

Targeted killings

The ID rejected Ahuday’s application mainly for his involvement in the DEU, the main police unit that enforced Duterte’s bloody drug war, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of drug suspects.

“As is demonstrated by the objective evidence, these activities directly contributed to targeted killings of drug users and dealers by the PNP, at the behest of President Duterte. I find that the length and breadth of his contributions, even as he described them, directly contributed to the antidrug campaign even for a limited period of time,” the court quoted the ID’s decision.

The court said Ahuday was inadmissible to Canada for violating the country’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which rejects any applicant involved in crimes against humanity.

Unaware

The decision was rendered two months before Duterte was surrendered by the Marcos administration to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 11.

Ahuday tried to argue that he was not aware of the extent of the killings being done by the DEU when he was still a member and that he left the unit just after three months.

But the court noted that Ahuday remained in the PNP and even in the same station and was even awarded a commendation in 2019.

The court also noted that Ahuday only left the PNP in June 2021 for the purpose of migrating to Canada. Ahuday is currently living in Canada as his wife’s dependent spouse.