Analysts: Duterte probe must be shielded from politics

By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

A PROPOSAL to create an independent body that will investigate ex-President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s war on drugs should be pursued via legislation to insulate it from politics, according to political analyst.

Doing so would also avoid a potential conflict of interest since several agencies under the Executive branch had participated in the campaign, Arjan P. Aguirre, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, said in a Facebook messenger chat.

“We cannot expect an ad hoc committee to do its job just like that if it was just an executive creation,” he said. “We need to have a more solid and credible source of that power to compel government offices and institutions to comply especially in producing data and information to help us know who did what and if public funds were used for this.”

House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan at the weekend urged President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to form an independent fact-finding commission that will investigate killings under the Duterte government’s war on drugs.

He said it should be patterned after the Agrava fact-finding board, which was formed to investigate the 1983 assassination of former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. at the Manila airport.

If the government is serious in holding perpetrators to account, “it should legislate the special body and allot funding for it,” Mr. Aguirre said. “Make it functional regardless of who is in power.”

Mr. Aguirre noted that many agencies had been involved in Mr. Duterte’s drug war, which is being investigated by a House quad committee. These include the police, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and even the Justice department, he pointed out.

“I hope people are seeing the problem that many of the involved offices and agencies are connected to the government,” he said. Creating an ad hoc body through an executive order could be prone to the influence of the administration and its allies, he added.

Anthony Lawrence Borja, a political science professor at De La Salle University, said the Marcos government is likely to pursue more domestic measures amid Filipino sentiment against foreign interference.

“Support for Duterte’s drug war was based, not only on some notion of social cleansing and intolerance but also on sentiments against foreign interference especially from organizations perceived as pro-American,” he said via Messenger chat.

“Hence, keeping procedures domestic will allow the administration to sustain or even gain support from those who, though disillusioned with Duterte, remain averse to foreign intervention.” he added.

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers has urged Mr. Marcos to submit the findings of the House quad committee probing the drug war to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Hansley A. Juliano, who teaches political science at the Ateneo said, noted that if the government were serious about giving victims of the drug war justice, “the ICC process needs to be prioritized since it is the appropriate forum with the stakeholders, especially the victims.”

“Whichever the administration chooses already indicates what their genuine priorities are.”