Updated with quotes from Senator Bam Aquino on drug trade inside Bilibid.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — Questions on the number of drug-related killings the Justice Department ordered investigated delayed the approval of its proposed 2018 budget.
The Senate committee on finance on Thursday deferred action on DOJ’s proposed ₱17.3-billion budget after officials failed to give comprehensive data on the number of killings under investigation in the war on drugs.
Committee chairperson Loren Legarda said Senator Franklin Drilon requested for a second hearing, which was set for August 31.
“But I assure you your budgets will be passed. They (senators) just have more questions,” Legarda said.
Tuesday’s hearing was suspended after three hours of deliberation, a stark contrast to the short period the Office of the Vice President’s budget was approved last Tuesday – in less than two minutes.
Line item on “extra-legal killings” questioned
Drilon pointed out a “small but significant” item – ₱33.3 million for the inter-agency committee on extra-legal killings. It was created in 2012 in line with Administrative Order no. 35. Then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima issued the guidelines.
Drilon asked Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre how many drug-related killings were handled by the committee, which Aguirre chairs.
Aguirre said drug killings are specifically covered by his own Department Order No. 120 issued last May which directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), an attached agency, to investigate the spate of killings allegedly done in the conduct of the government’s anti-drug campaign.
Drilon pressed for answers. “How many extrajudicial killings allegedly related to illegal drugs are being investigated pursuant to your own department order? That’s a fair question.”
Minutes before the hearing ended, the NBI presented initial data which showed it investigated 37 deaths related to the war on drugs. Of the 30 cases reported by regional offices, only three were recommended for prosecution, three were terminated, while 24 are still pending. Seven other cases were from Manila, but NBI Director Dante Gierran did not elaborate.
Gierran said they are awaiting more reports, but submitted the preliminary information to the Senate.
He earlier said the NBI has investigated 625 murder cases and 74 homicide cases from January to December last year.
Aguirre asked senators to give the NBI 10 days for it to classify which of these were drug-related, but later said preliminary data can be provided in 20 minutes.
“I would like to assure the good senator there is no attempt to hide any information or data,” Aguirre told Drilon.
Aguirre said he estimates there are more than 1,000 other drug-related killings by vigilantes, on top of 3,050 killed in police operations as of May.
Drilon, who left before the hearing was suspended, told reporters: “I think there is a deliberate attempt to be less than transparent, to keep these from the public.”
He also said the agency’s performance, with only 37 cases investigated so far, was “dismal.”
President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs has seen 3,400 deaths of drug suspects in police operations since July last year. Local and international human rights groups claim more than 9,000 have been killed.
Read more: Duterte administration’s controversial drug war
Sting operations for drugs within Bilibid unknown to DOJ
During the hearing, Senator Bam Aquino questioned Aguirre about the return of the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison, which is managed by the Bureau of Corrections. The Bureau of Corrections is under the purview of the Justice Department.
“It’s very frustrating na tuloy-tuloy pa rin ang daloy ng [that there is continuous entry of] drugs. Our Customs allows billions of pesos worth of shabu in the country and BuCor allows the drug trade in Bilibid to continue,” said Aquino, vice chairman of the committee on finance in a statement.
An official of Bilibid told the committee that the transfer of high-profile inmates from maximum to medium security in January 2017 was part of law enforcement agencies’ plan to nab accomplices who were operating from outside and bringing the drugs into the prison.
Aquino noted that even Secretary Aguirre questioned the sting operations.
The DOJ said it will investigate the operations and submit details of this in the next budget hearing of the department
CNN Philippines’ Lara Parpan contributed to this report.
