WITH the spate of killings in the Summer Capital, City Councilors are asking the Commission on Human Rights to investigate.
Councilor Arthur Allad-iw said the killings have instilled fear in citizens of Baguio City and forebodes vigilante killings will ensue.
“The right to life is being trampled on already,” Allad-iw said.
The resolution is co-authored by Councilors Faustino Olowan and Leandro Yangot, Jr. which moves to avoid breakdown in law in order pushing them to ask the Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau Of Investigation (NBI) And The Commission On Human Rights-Cordillera Administrative Region (CHR-CAR) to come up with a steadfast investigation and a comprehensive report on the unsolved and alleged drug-related extra-judicial killings and murders committed in the city.
Allad-iw said with the way things are going, an institutionalized violation to the right to life is being committed.
“It seems that it is okay to kill and make it appear that it is drug related,” Allad-iw added.
Allad-iw is also calling on the public especially the witnesses to these deaths to disclose to the PNP, NBI AND CHR-CAR investigators their personal accounts on the circumstances of these deaths and frustrated murders.
The aldermen said in the national level, there are already more than 3,000 killings traced on the war on drugs while in the city, there are more or less 20 drug related killings, with only four cases of the claimed by the police to be the result of a legitimate encounter.
“We do not want a breakdown in law and order, these drug-related killings are even done in broad day light by motorcycle-riding in tandem, like the case of Franklin Bambico, who was shot near the Lourdes Grotto in Baguio City,” Allad-iw said.
This week, a headless corpse of a government employee was found in Quezon Hill by still unidentified suspects with the murder so far the most brutal in the city. Police reports reveal illegal drugs were found inside the home of the victim as relatives swear the victim neither used or deals in the illegal trade.
“While we fully support the war on drugs as it is a menace to our society as it destroys the total well-being of an individual, family and social relations, we join the public outcry that the extrajudicial killings are instilling fear and insecurity instead,” the resolution stated.
Allad-iw meanwhile said this alleged drug related extra-judicial killings and murders caused a chilling effect to the people of the City of Baguio as they fear that it is not safe as it used to be - as it is infested by drug syndicates, whose murderous operations are done with ease in broad daylight with no perpetrators being arrested.
The resolution has been referred to the committee on law chaired by Olowan and will be discussed in next week’s regular session.
Months ago, the Mayor Mauricio Domogan has asked the Baguio City Police Office to form a task force to investigate the killings but the task force has yet to update the mayor.
“There is a need to unearth the truth relative to these unsolved deaths by conducting a thorough investigation and come up with a true and comprehensive report to calm down the citizens of Baguio and bury all the apprehensions and speculations and revitalize the trust of the people to our police forces,” Allad-iw added.
The first term councilor said the PNP, CHR and the NBI may be summoned by the council in the future.