The Commission on Human Rights welcomes the commitment of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to recalibrate its existing strategy to curb the drug problem in the country, and remains hopeful that these changes will give way to a multiperspective and a more pro-people approach to the campaign.

The current reforms being enforced by the Administration, including the recent appointment of the Vice President to co-chair the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-illegal Drugs (ICAD), opened up the discussion to reevaluate existing aspects of the anti-drug campaign that worked and to address the identified gaps in its implementation. The Commission has always been supportive of these initiatives with the assurance that they will not be violative of any basic human rights and police operations standards—no killings or use of unnecessary force and done with due process.

Apart from the PNP’s promise to look into reassessing the current methods, the Commission consistently calls for greater transparency and genuine investigation of extrajudicial killing cases committed in the past three years since the campaign was launched. We demand the government to make every perpetrator accountable for their violation of the right to life of thousands of victims, and to offer sustainable and effective redress for those who surrendered and wanted to undergo rehabilitation.

We look forward to the continued openness and dedication of the PNP to improve its operations while we extend all the possible help that we could provide in guiding them in this undertaking. ###