The infamous Davao Death Squad (DDS), created by former President Rodrigo Duterte, has once again received national attention during the latest Quad Committee hearing, which featured former Senator and Justice Secretary Leila De Lima as a resource person. De Lima corroborated former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Royina Garma’s claim that Duterte’s drug war was patterned after the DDS and Davao model.

The DDS was composed of law enforcement officers under Duterte’s leadership, who, while he was mayor of Davao City, were involved in the summary executions of individuals suspected of crimes and drug dealings. The Davao model, on the other hand, refers to a system that involves payments and rewards to incentivize police officers for these killings. De Lima said that Duterte used this Davao model to fight illegal drugs during his term as mayor of Davao City. According to De Lima, Duterte was directly involved, as he issued kill orders and provided the reward money directly to the police officers after a successful kill.

This reward system used to incentivize the killings in Davao City was expanded nationwide when Duterte became President in 2016. During his presidency, Duterte pushed for a broader crackdown on drug-related crimes, resulting in a surge of extrajudicial killings across the Philippines. His administration framed drug offenders as a significant threat to society, thereby justifying the use of lethal force by police officers. Their brutal methods of killing suspects on the spot and executing anyone who opposed them were justified under the guise of the drug war.

It is important to remember that thousands of victims were killed during the Duterte administration. Police officers often justified these deaths by using the “nanlaban” concept, which suggested that the victims attempted to fight back, allegedly leaving the police with no choice but to kill them. During the Quad Committee hearing, De Lima was asked about this concept. She revealed that the DDS initially developed the “nanlaban” narrative while Duterte was still mayor. The DDS would claim that their victims fought back, supposedly leaving them no choice but to kill them in self-defense.

On a national scale, the “nanlaban” excuse became a staple during Duterte’s drug war. The police officers executing his drug war were motivated by the reward system, as they received money for every successful kill. They used the “nanlaban” excuse as a convenient tool to justify intentional murders and reckless killings. It is no wonder that drug-related killings reached unprecedented heights during the Duterte administration. Police officers were not only empowered by Duterte’s drug war; they also had the “nanlaban” excuse to justify the killings and were rewarded for such deaths. The “nanlaban” narrative and the reward system complement each other and go hand in hand.

The link between the DDS, the Davao Model, and Duterte’s national drug war is critical to understanding how these extrajudicial killings were executed on a national level. The testimonies of Garma and De Lima reveal a system perpetrated by Duterte in which extrajudicial killings were accepted, protected, and rewarded, and they could provide a basis for charges of crimes against humanity or extrajudicial killings against Duterte, given the systematic nature of the massacre. The house built by Duterte is slowly crumbling as more people find the courage to come forward and former allies turn against him. It won’t be long before we see Duterte held accountable for his crimes.

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