Manila: Amid the furore over the slaying of a 17-year-old student during anti-drugs operations, Philippine lawmakers are pushing for greater accountability from law enforcers in a bid to improve the country’s judicial system.
“The alarming number of abuses necessitates safeguards to protect the citizens of our country and to help in ending the culture of impunity within the ranks of our law enforcement agencies,” Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said.
Although suspected extrajudicial killings have been taking place in the Philippines under administrations before that of current leader President Rodrigo Duterte, the call for greater accountability intensified as some policemen were accused of executing 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, a student in Quezon City.
Community security videos showed Delos Santos being picked up by policemen in plain clothes on August 16. Hours later, he was dead after he allegedly tried to shoot it out with the arresting police officers. The killing sparked outrage and underscored the demand from various sectors for greater accountability from law enforcers.
Gordon said such an incident would have been avoided if proper rules on arrest of suspects and necessary tools for law enforcement were on hand such as “body cameras.”
“I have recommended even then that we should equip our policemen and other law enforcers, especially those who are part of operations being conducted, with body cameras that would record their interaction with the public,” the senator said.
Such gadgets are used in several countries including the UK, the US and Denmark to reduce police misconduct.
Gordon filed Senate Bill No. 1536, or the Body Camera and Dashboard Camera for Law Enforcement Officers Act of 2017, which states that all law enforcement officers be required to use body and dashboard cameras in the course of conducting a search or making an arrest.
In the House of Representatives, Taguig City Congressman Ruffy Biazon said they had filed a similar measure, House Bill No. 2741 or the BodyCam Bill, as early as August last year.
Biazon said body cams serve as “neutral and truthful witnesses during police operations”.
“The killing of Kian Loyd De Los Santos seems to be a catalyst in a surge of outrage and protest over deaths brought about by the Philippine National Police’s implementation of Duterte’s anti-drug war,” he said.
Senator Win Gatchalian said to ensure strict compliance with the body cam policy, law enforcers who engage in a raid, buy-bust operation, or other anti-illegal drugs operations without recording required video footage should be summarily suspended pending investigation.
“Many policemen have also been victims of trumped up charges of abuse against them, just as members of the public have been victims of abusive law enforcers. Body cams serve as neutral eyewitnesses that will tell what actually transpired,” he said.
Duterte, on Monday, met with the parents of the slain Delos Santos to express condolences and to assure them that justice would be served. Three policemen have so far been charged in connection with the incident.
