Jea Nicole M. Jacot

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla created a task force aimed at investigating the alleged extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

Photo Courtesy of Noel Celis/Philippine Star.

“Spare no one, hold accountable every personality who had a hand in the senseless killing perpetrated by abusive persons in authority during the past admin’s anti-illegal drug campaign,” Remulla said in a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on November 6, Wednesday. 

Remulla issued Department Order (DO) 778, establishing the task force under the Office of the Secretary of Justice Prosecution Staff.

It will be led by a senior assistant state prosecutor, with a regional prosecutor as co-chair, and will include nine members from the National Prosecution Service (NPS). 

Newly appointed Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon assured the public that the NPS prosecutors would support law enforcement agencies in investigating the EJK cases.

“Our prosecutors are there to give the law enforcement agencies the necessary backup in terms of legal knowledge or strategies and probably guiding them into what kind of evidence is needed in any particular case created to file,” he said.

To bolster the efforts of the task force, a team from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), shall be formed to assist them as needed.
Moreover, DO 778 mandates the task force to work closely with the House of Representatives Quad Committee and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in their separate investigations on the War on Drugs.

They are also required to submit a report to the Secretary of Justice within 60 days following the issuance of DO 778.

Fadullon stated that “nothing will prevent them from investigating cold cases,” including those filed as complaints that never reached the prosecution office.

He further noted that EJKs are classified as either murder or homicide, both of which have 20-year prescriptive periods.

Government records report that at least 6,200 drug suspects were killed in legitimate anti-drug operations during Duterte's term. 

However, human rights organizations have argued that the actual number of people killed in the drug war could be much higher, with estimates ranging from 12,000 to 30,000.