OVERVIEW OF GENDER RIGHTS IN 2016
Investigation by the CHR Regional Offices
reveal that family members of EJK victims are
affected in various ways by the killings. There were
11
also cases wherein family members or people who
were with the drug suspect during the raid or killing
were also harassed and violated.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE DRUG WAR23
• A woman narrated to the CHR what happened to her live-in partner who was killed
in the anti-drug campaign. The police officers forcibly entered their house when they
were about to sleep and searched their room. The woman took her 2-year-old daughter
and attempted to get out of the room, but a police officer stopped her. He accused her
of hiding shabu (crystal metamphetamine) in her daughter’s rectum. The police officer
then removed the child’s underwear and examined the child’s rectum. The police also
searched and pushed her whenever she resisted, which resulted to multiple bruises on
her body. The woman was pregnant at the time of the incident.
• Four female minors, who were sleeping at their house, were forcibly taken out of their
house and made to ride a police car. The operatives carried high-powered firearms. The
minors were brought to the police station. Later, they found out that their three male
companions, who were also in the house at the time were taken away and killed by the
police.
• The police barged into the house of a drug suspect, and dragged him out of their
house. His 18-year-old son tried to stop them but a police officer punched him in the
face. The son heard him say,“Isama na natin ito!” [Let’s bring this one, too!] but another
policeman answered, “Sir wag po! Minor po iyan!” [Sir, don’t! He’s a minor!] The son
heard his father pleading for his life as he was dragged away. Then gusnshots were
heard. He later saw the dead body of his father.
• Five operatives in plain clothes forcefully dragged a woman out of her house in
Binondo before killing her husband. Her husband was accused of dealing with illegal
drugs. The police had barged into their house without any arrest or search warrant.
• In Region II, the PDEA forcibly entered the house of a drug suspect. In the house
were the suspect’s children aged 17, 11, and 7, as well as his 17-year-old daughter-in-law
and her baby. Also in the house were some of the suspect’s friends. The PDEA ordered
the family members to stay inside one room while they searched the house. The father
and his companions held at gunpoint, then taken to an area at the back of their house.
They heard gunshots; the father was found bloodied and lifeless. The son pleaded
with the PDEA agents to help his father but one of the agents told him “tumigil ka
diyan at baka ikaw naman ang isunod ko sa papa mo.” [Shut up or else you might end
up like your father.] The police also threatened the daughter-in-law that she would be
handcuffed and tied up with adhesive tape if she didn’t stop crying.
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CHR Protection Office Report, 2016.