EXTRAJUDICIAL killing (EJK) should be a special heinous crime separate from murder, Quad Comm lead chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte said Wednesday.
“The intention of the proposal to us is really to elevate the killing perpetrated by state agents higher than the so-called murder, if that is possible. As I premise earlier that, if this will not violate the equal protection clause, eh sa tingin ko dapat klaro kung sino yung perpetrators ng EJK at sino yung hindi,” Barbers said.
“If they (perpetrators) are not state agents or persons in authority then therefore they fall under a different category. But if they are state agents and committed such crime that is considered to be extrajudicial killing. That was the intention of this particular proposal,” he added.
Barbers represented the authors of House Bill (HB) No. 10986, or the Anti-Extrajudicial Killing Act, in Wednesday’s hearing of the Justice Committee, which resumed deliberations on the measure.
The bill’s authors, aside from Barbers, are Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr., Deputy Speaker David Suarez, Quad Comm co-chairmen Reps. Bienvenido Abante, Dan Fernandez and Stephen Joseph Paduano, Quad Comm overall vice chairman Romeo Acop and Reps. Johnny Pimentel, Gerville Luistro, Rodge Gutierrez, Paolo Ortega, Jay Khonghun and Jonathan Keith Flores.
Barbers told the committee and its resource persons the proposal of the anti-EJK bill’s authors is to have a separate law defining and punishing EJK.
“Let us differentiate EJK from murder to punish state actors behind killings. Private offenders will be covered by existing laws,” he said.
The proposed Anti-EJK Act is one of several proposed laws Quad Comm leaders and active participants have filed. The proposals are the product of the mega panel’s extensive inquiries into EJKs, Philippine Offshore Gambling Operations (POGO) and drug trafficking during the Duterte administration.
Barbers said his panel uncovered in its hearings hundreds of drug suspects killed by police forces in the course of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs, with policemen claiming, “nanlaban ‘yung mga biktima.”
“‘Nanlaban.’ That is the common excuse for killing suspects, which, in many cases, we found hard to believe. Thus, we recommended this bill,” he said.
A representative of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) agreed with the proposal of the bill’s authors to have a different treatment for EJK perpetrators who are state agents and private citizens who commit the crime of murder.
She said persons in authority have access to instruments of crime such as firearms and ammunition, and to state resources and power.
However, she said a private individual may be covered by the proposed EJK law under certain circumstances, such as if he acts in support or under authority of the EJK perpetrator-state agent.
She also expressed the view that defining and penalizing EJK under a separate law would not violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
Rep. Juliet Marie de Leon Ferrer, chair of the committee on justice, gave agencies and resource persons one week to submit their position papers on the proposed Anti-EJK Act, after which the justice committee would again convene to come up with a substitute bill.
HB No. 10986 defines EJK as “any killing other than that imposed by the State pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution on heinous crimes or a deliberate and arbitrary killing of any person not authorized by a previous judgment pronounced by a competent court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”
It may be committed a public officer, person in authority, agent of a person in authority, or any person who is acting under the actual or apparent authority of the state.
The authors proposed the imposition of the penalty of life imprisonment “upon a public officer, person of authority, agent of a person in authority, or any person who is acting under the actual or apparent authority of the State, who commits an extrajudicial killing or who orders the extrajudicial killing.”
Any superior military, police or law enforcement officer or senior government official who issued an order to any lower ranking personnel to commit an extrajudicial killing for whatever purpose shall be equally liable as principal.
In cases where private individuals are involved but could be proven to have acted under the direction or in concert with state agents, the same penalty would apply.
“The classification of EJK as a heinous crime is a necessary step to restore public confidence in the justice system and uphold the rule of law. It affirms the State’s duty to ensure that all individuals are afforded the protection of law and that justice is served in every case of unlawful killing,” Gonzales and his co-authors said.
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