DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/24 January) — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) announced it would have to postpone releasing the results of its report on extrajudicial killings in the city and the possible involvement of some local officials and police as the agency still plans to conduct another set of public inquiry soon.
Lawyer Alberto B. Sipaco, Jr., regional director of CHR-XI, said their central office will schedule the hearing after the two-day public inquiry on the death of botanist Leonard Co in Tacloban City starting today.[]
United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said “such killings were almost a daily occurrence in Davao City, jumping from a reported 116 in 2007 to 269 in 2008.”
“Davao City continues to be a hotbed of extrajudicial killings, and the vigilante-style death squad killings in Davao have significantly worsened since 2007,” Alston said.
Then mayor Duterte admitted difficulty in solving the spate of killings in the city.
“True, we are struggling (in solving the killings) and I’m not denying there are killings in Davao City,” he said.
In July 2009, the CHR exhumed skeletal remains of persons believed to have been victims of vigilante killings after an alleged member of a suspected death squad aided the commission in locating the burial site.[]
