Facilitating Factors Affecting their Desire to Seek Accountability

Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, to which the CHR strives to respond to. According to Gavilan (2018), the CHR has handled 1,106 drug-related cases with 1,345 victims since 2016. CHR Spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia added that the caseloads they are handling “[do] not even represent half of the reality on ground” (Gavilan, 2018).

This overwhelming number of victims is also one of the reasons why it is difficult to get justice and claim accountability from the government. Apart from the corrupt judicial system in the country, investigators are short of hands to accommodate the number of cases on ground having only seven to ten investigators per region (Gavilan, 2018).

47

Since Pres. Duterte launched the anti-narcotics campaign in 2016, human rights groups have criticized him due to the number of killings, as well as his “promise” to pardon police officers convicted for WoD killings (BBC News, 2018).

One of the cases with a major breakthrough was Kian Delos Santos, as his case caused the first nation-wide outrage regarding the drug war (BBC News, 2018). His death has led to the public’s awareness of the wrongful killings by police officers. Residents of his community were united in saying that Kian is not involved in drugs and has rallied behind Kian’s family (Stein, 2017). At his funeral, hundreds of people attended to demand “Justice for Kian” (BBC News, 2018). Moreover, witnesses were provided with protection and were able to provide evidence and testimony. When the three police officers who murdered Kian were sentenced to imprisonment, the verdict was celebrated even by the government. However, while the State claimed that the verdict shows accountability, human rights groups argue that there are still thousands of other drug war deaths yet to be investigated and given due process (BBC News, 2018). Additionally, while the policemen were proven guilty, the killings continued (Stein, 2017).

Human rights groups and the surviving families of the victims of EJK have called on the government to stop the abusive actions and cooperate with the UN reporting process. Groups like Rise Up for Rights and for Life, Stop Killing Farmers Campaign, Church People’s Response Promotion, and other human rights groups and advocates continue to condemn the administration for the HRVs committed (Chavez, 2019).