AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

of using or selling small amounts of
methamphetamines. Victims included the
Mayor of Albuera, Rolando Espinosa Senior,
who was shot dead in his prison cell while
being served a search warrant. President
Duterte had publicly branded the Mayor a
leading drug dealer. Despite an investigation
by the National Bureau of Investigations,
which recommended that charges be filed
against the police officers allegedly
responsible, the President promised to
protect the police.
As a result of the so-called “war on drugs”,
at least 800,000 people reportedly
“surrendered” to the authorities in fear they
would be targeted on suspicion of drugrelated
offences. Consequently, prisons were
severely overcrowded, exacerbating an
already acute problem.
Journalists remained at risk, with at least
three killed while carrying out their work. Alex
Balcoba, a crime reporter for the People’s
Brigada, was killed when he was shot in the
head in May by an unidentified gunman in
Quiapo in the capital Manila, outside his
family’s shop. Families of victims marked the
seventh anniversary of the Maguindanao
massacre in which 32 journalists and another
26 people were killed. No one had been held
to account for these crimes by the end of the
year.
TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT
Reports of torture and other ill-treatment in
police custody continued. In March, police
officer Jerick Dee Jimenez was convicted of
torturing bus driver Jerryme Corre, and
sentenced to a maximum of two
years and one month’s imprisonment. It was
the first conviction under the 2009 Anti-
Torture Act. However, many other cases were
still awaiting justice. 2 In July, a postmortem
conducted by the Commission on Human
Rights of the Philippines recorded torture
marks on the bodies of father and son
Renato and J.P. Bertes, who were shot dead
in police custody.
A bill to establish a National Preventative
Mechanism on torture stalled during the year.
In May, the UN Committee against Torture
expressed concern about torture by police
and urged the Philippines to close all places
of secret detention where detainees,
including children, were subjected to torture
or other ill-treatment.
EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE
The use of unnecessary and excessive force
by police continued. In April, the police used
force, including firearms, to disperse over
5,000 farmers who had blockaded a national
highway in Kidapawan City during a
demonstration demanding rice subsidies. At
least two people died during the incident and
dozens were injured. 3 In July, the
Commission on Human Rights of the
Philippines published a report which found
that excessive and unjustified force had been
used by the police during the incident but no
police officers were prosecuted for related
offences by the end of the year.
In October, the police brutally suppressed
a rally organized by Indigenous Peoples’
organizations in front of the US Embassy. The
protest called for an end to militarization and
encroachment onto ancestral lands. In
November, at least two people were injured
when a police van ran over demonstrators
who were protesting outside the US Embassy
in Metro Manila.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
In July, environmentalist Gloria Capitan was
killed by two gunmen in Mariveles, Bataan
province. She was involved in opposing a
coal mining project in her community. In
October, the UN CESCR expressed concern
at the continuing harassment, enforced
disappearances and killings of human rights
defenders, and the low level of investigations
into, and prosecutions and convictions for
these crimes.
DEATH PENALTY
In July, ruling party congressmen proposed
bills to reintroduce the death penalty for a
wide range of offences. If passed, the
punishment, which was abolished in 2006,
would apply to crimes including rape, arson,
drug trafficking and possession of small
296 Amnesty International Report 2016/17