Death Squads Strike Anew
May 6, 2011 ·
A day after Mayor Rodrigo Duterte announced that his patience for gangsterism has run out, members of the Davao Death Squad killed four persons in two days this week. This brings the number of extra-judicial execution in the city to 47 this year alone.
As in many incidents, responding policemen were late to arrive in the crime scene where two of the victims were shot and merely recovered five spent shells of 9mm pistol and another shell from a .45 cal. pistol.
Last month, an independent investigating body composed of members of FIND (Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance) and the Commission on Human Rights discovered a killing field in Barangay Maa, Davao City where they found pieces of long bones, skulls and other remains scattered in an eroded portion of the place. Forensic analysis revealed that the skeletal remains belong to at least six persons, including a female child and that the killings most probably happened in the last six months to three years. Some of the skeletal remains were also found to have torture marks. A random search of the killing yielded more bones of victims of summary execution.
