Human rights cases vs. cops going down since 2014 -- PNP

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 30): Human rights cases vs. cops going down since 2014 -- PNP

The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday said that cases of human rights violations against policemen are going down since 2014.

This was announced by PNP Human Rights Affairs Office (HRAO) director Chief Supt. Dennis Siervo in a press conference in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Siervo said that in 2014, there are 174 personnel who have human rights cases. In 2015, it went down to 131 and in ‎2016, there were 105 cases recorded.

”So there is a downward trend on personnel involved in human rights violations. Pababa (It's going down) despite yung half of the previous year, there was a change of administration,” Siervo said.

Likewise, the PNP HRAO chief disproved that the all-out war against illegal drugs will increase the cases of human rights violations.

”If you think the war on illegal drugs will escalate the number of human rights violations, the statistics show it did not,” Siervo said.

He noted that in 2016, the cases which were recorded are homicide, illegal arbitrary detention and arbitrary detention.

However, Siervo said that the PHAO does not prove such cases as they are only concerned about the awareness and prevention of the same.

”Our office (PHAO) does not have the mandate to investigate. We are only aware of the preventive side,” he said.

The PHAO chief stressed that the DIDM (Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management) and the IAS (Internal Affairs Office) are specifically mandated to conduct the internal investigation if human rights cases are filed against policemen.

”After internal investigation are conducted, we ask for these reports based on their findings, then we submit recommendations,” Siervo said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=976284