SENATE Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Sunday slammed the Philippine National Police for making the Filipino people appear stupid when he said there were no extrajudicial killings in the country.
He made the statement even as Communications Secretary Martin Andanar on Sunday insisted that the so-called extrajudicial killings, supposedly being committed under the intensified war against illegal drugs, could not happen in a country without a death-penalty law.
He denied the claims that the police had committed thousands of summary killlings in the course of their operation against illegal drugs.
Drilon also criticized the Philippine Statistics Authority for not helping the government come up with reliable data on the number of drug addicts in the country in line with its drug war.
“Is it 1.8 million or 4.7-million drug addicts? The PSA should help us find out,” Drilon said.
He slammed PNP spokesman Dionardo Carlos for saying there were no summary killings in the country.
“Ginagago tayo ng mga pulis, nitong spokesman na ito,” Drilon said.
Carlos had issued the statement to correct an announcement he had made hours earlier”•that there had been only one case of extrajudicial killing since Duterte took his oath of office on June 30, 2016.
Carlos later said there was “officially no case” of extrajudicial killing under the 15-month-old administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Do they believe the people will believe them that there is no EJKs around us?” Drilon said.
“Was not the case of Kian delos Santos extra-judicial killing?”
Drilon emphasized the assertion of policemen that the almost 4,000 killed in the drug war had put up a fight against arresting officers.
Speaking in an interview over dzBB, Drilon said those killed in the war against illegal drugs were outrightly declared guilty and killed.
“What they’re saying are lies and they’re deceiving the public. They’re making us stupid, to put it bluntly,” Drilon said.
He also slammed Communications Secretary Martin Andanar who insisted there were no extrajudicial killings because there were no judicial killings.
If the P900-million fund was being used in the PNP’s war against illegal drugs, then the Senate was obliged to remove it, Drilon said.
