Philippines’ ex-police chief admits rights abuses in drug war. Why now?

Dela Rosa, who served as the head of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the launch of Duterte’s drug war and is now a senator, said at a Senate forum on Thursday that each case related to the campaign should be treated and investigated separately as he lambasted efforts to lump the deaths into claims that crimes against humanity were committed.

Dela Rosa’s testimony comes amid an ongoing probe by the House of Representatives into the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, where family members of slain victims have testified how police barged into their homes without warrants and killed their relatives, often on the grounds of mistaken identity.

The former police chief criticised the House probe, saying it was “not their turf” to investigate the killings. He has refused invitations from committee members to attend the inquiry, citing “inter-parliamentary courtesy” where members of the House and Senate do not meddle in each other’s affairs.

Dela Rosa’s admission is a departure from his position in previous years when he proclaimed in 2021 that “no crimes against humanity” occurred during the drug war, after the International Criminal Court said it was resuming its investigation into the deaths that took place during the campaign.

The official death toll of Duterte’s drug war stands at about 6,000, according to the PNP. However, human rights organisations and independent monitors estimate the number of deaths to be significantly higher, ranging from 12,000 to more than 20,000.

Maria Ela Atienza, a professor at the University of the Philippines’ political science department, said dela Rosa’s statement was a likely bid to spare himself from harsher judgment in the event of blowback, but added that his statement “would not