Davao Death Squad

According to Amnesty International and local human rights groups, death squads killed over 300 people in Davao City between 1998 and 2005. The rate of killing accelerated after this so that between 2005 and 2008 death squads were responsible for between 700 and 720 executions.[6][7] According to a 2009 report by Human Rights Watch, the victims were mostly alleged drug dealers, petty criminals, and street children.[1][8] Amnesty International states that killings and extrajudicial executions, particularly of criminal suspects, continued throughout the year. In Mindanao many such killings, including those of minors, were attributed to the so-called "Davao Death Squad" vigilante group. It was reported that local officials in some areas advocated a "shoot to kill" policy with respect to criminal suspects resisting arrest.[9]

Retired Policeman Arthur Lascañas, a self-confessed leader of DDS, claims that the group was responsible for mosque bombings and the killing of a journalist during its heyday. According to Lascañas, the squad was ordered to bomb mosques in Davao in retaliation for the San Pedro Cathedral bombing.[10]

DDS was conceptualized by former Integrated National Police Regional Commander Dionisio Tan-Gatue Jr. to fight the New People's Army's Sparrow Unit. Tan-Gatue allegedly used the late Juan "Jun" Pala, a known anti-New People's Army propagandist and radio commentator, to report stories about the death squad, which allegedly curbed executions perpetrated by the Sparrow Unit. By mid-1997, the DDS were deemed responsible for more than 60 unsolved murders in the city.[1] It is believed that the original members of the death squad included former members of the Sparrow Unit. Initially the death squad had around 10 members but this had increased to around 500 by 2009.[11]

Members of the death squad were managed by either currently serving or ex-police officers, according to Human Rights Watch.[1] These officers provided the assailants with training, weapons and ammunition, motorcycles, and information on the targets. Lists of targets were drawn up by police or barangay (village or district) officials. Information might include a name, address and a photograph. Local police stations were allegedly pre-warned to facilitate the murders and escape of the assailants.[1] Witnesses reported that police officers took a surprisingly long time to respond to incidents even where these occurred in the vicinity of police stations and officers neglected to follow basic investigative procedures, such as collecting bullet casings from the street.[1] Human Rights Watch reported that the standard tactics of the killers was to arrive in small groups of two or three on unlicensed motorbikes. Victims would be stabbed or shot without warning during daytime in public areas such as bars, cafes, markets, shopping areas, jeepneys or tricycles and in the presence of numerous witnesses.[11] Assailants were generally paid between PHP5,000 and PHP50,000 (US$114 – US$1,147) for an assassination, depending on the target.

There appears to have been a certain degree of public approval among citizens of Davao City for the actions of the death squad, primarily fueled by public discontent at "the arduous and ineffective judicial system" that created an environment where extrajudicial executions seemed to be a "practical resort" to suppress crime in the city.[11] There were subsequent reports of death squads operating in other cities, including General Santos, Digos, and Tagum City in Mindanao as well as in Cebu City, the second largest city in the Philippines.[11]

In its 2009 report Human Rights Watch criticized authorities for failing to act against the death squads. It condemned the then president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for tolerating the lawlessness, saying that she had, "largely turned a blind eye to the killing spree in Davao City and elsewhere."[11] In 2004 Arroyo had announced Duterte as her special adviser on crime, an appointment which was viewed as signifying her approval of extrajudicial killings.[6] Human Rights Watch also highlighted the inaction of the Philippine National Police and national institutions such as the Department of Justice, the Ombudsman's Office, and the Commission on Human Rights. This official tolerance of vigilantism had created, they said, an environment of "widespread impunity".[11] From 2009 Philippines government institutions periodically stated their intention to investigate the death squads. On one such occasion the National Commission on Human Rights created an inter-agency task force to look into the matter. However, no real action was forthcoming. Later, in 2008 the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Philip Alston, pointed out that the fact that the killers made no effort to hide their identity and threatened parents with the murder of their children, suggested a belief by the killers that they were immune from police action.[11]

In 2005 the deputy ombudsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices suspended four senior police officials for six months without pay because of their failure to solve a number of vigilante killings in their area.[11] In an official statement the deputy ombudsman said:[11] "The inability of the respondent police officers to prevent the summary killing in Davao City is an indication of gross neglect of duty and inefficiency and incompetence in the performance of official functions."

When the four officers were suspended, the mayor of Davao, Duterte, directed the four officials to file a petition for certiorari, on the basis that the penalty would demoralize the police, reportedly claiming, "I have pledged to help [the police] especially when they are prosecuted for simply performing their duties,"[11] The suspension order was subsequently reversed by the Court of Appeals after the police officers filed a petition.

In 2012 the Office of the Ombudsman charged 21 police officers with a charge of simple neglect of duty over the vigilante killings.[7] The charge provided for penalties of 1-month suspension or a fine of 1 month's salary. Investigators from the Ombudsman's office found that there was an "unusually high number of unsolved killings" from 2005 to 2008 in the areas of jurisdiction of the officers' precincts.[7] The officers ranged in seniority from police chief inspector to police senior superintendent.

A film depicting vigilante killings in the Philippines Engkwentro ("Square Off"), premiered in July 2009 at the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, where it received strong reactions.[31][32][33] The film was later selected for the 66th Venice International Film Festival where it won the Best Picture award in the Orizzonti (New Horizons) program. At the same festival director Pepe Diokno won the Luigi de Laurentiis Venice Award for a Debut Film, also known as the "Lion of the Future" prize.[34] [35]

The initialism DDS has been adopted by hardline civilian supporters of Duterte in order to stand for 'Diehard Duterte Supporters'.[36][37][38] According to political science Professor and Manila Times columnist Antonio Contreras of De La Salle University, the term was adopted by Duterte supporters during the President's campaign in 2016 and used "as a rallying point to consolidate the Duterte political base."[39]

• Death squad
• Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines

• ""You Can Die Anytime" - Death Squad Killings in Mindanao". Human Rights Watch. May 4, 2009. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021.
• "Philippines Death Squad Killings -- Interview with Former Hitman". Human Rights Watch. May 20, 2014. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021.