CHR to probe Duterte over threat to kill rice smugglers

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) yesterday said it is set to conduct an investigation of the incident where Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte reportedly threatened to kill rice smugglers in his city if they will not stop their illegal activities.

In a letter addressed to Duterte, CHR Chairman Loretta Ann Rosales said “the Legal and Investigation Office (LIO) of the CHR will conduct a legal review of the matter, with a view to the filing of charges, if warranted by the facts and law, in the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the President.”

Apart from the death threat for rice smugglers, the CHR also noted that Duterte issued a “shoot-to-kill” order to law enforcement agencies in Davao City against all criminals who enter the mayor’s area of jurisdiction.

“With regard to your possible legal liability arising from the issuance of ‘shoot-to-kill’ orders on at least two occasions which have been documented extensively by the press, the LIO has been directed to determine whether such statements have influenced or affected the professional behavior of the local police to the extent that their use of lethal force has been or will probably be in violation of Standard No. 5 of the Philippine National Police Guidebook on Human Rights-Based Policing and other relevant laws, rules and regulations,” the letter read.

“Ordering law enforcement officers to ‘shoot-to-kill’ suspects, or threatening smugglers to leave your area out of their operations, or saying ‘I will kill you’ is no way for a local chief executive to lead. Such comments are sending the wrong signals that invite vigilantism,” Rosales added.

Rosales had earlier said that Duterte’s warning to rice smugglers was unethical.

She said the mayor’s role is “to ensure good governance and not kill people.”

Duterte vs De Lima

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Duterte yesterday traded barbs over the government’s hunt for rice smuggling king “David Tan.”

Duterte told De Lima to “stop talking and start working” after criticizing her for allowing the release of businessman Davidson Bangayan, who is being tagged by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as the real Tan.

In response, the equally feisty justice chief told the mayor to “shut up.”

“I think he should be the one who should shut up. Everybody is aware that he’s got a lousy mouth,” she told reporters in an ambush interview.

Duterte slammed De Lima for insisting that Bangayan is a rice trader from Davao City.

“I see malice in De Lima insisting that Bangayan is from Davao City when in fact he is from Tuguegarao in Cagayan Valley,” Duterte said, adding that he knows there is no rice trader named David Bangayan or David Tan in his city.

De Lima, on the other hand, said Duterte should not worry because the NBI is doing its job and does not need a reminder from him.

She said she was wondering why the mayor would accuse the NBI of not pursuing the link between Tan and Bangayan when the bureau already announced its theory that the two are one and the same.

De Lima, in return, criticized Duterte’s warning to kill rice smugglers in Davao.

“That (shoot-to-kill) is an illegal order. Doesn’t he know that?” she asked.

“But that’s Mayor Duterte. We don’t know if we should take it seriously. Even when I was still in CHR, I already warned him about his style,” she said. – With Edu Punay, Edith Regalado