Philippine expert says some death certificates from drug wars have been falsified

MANILA – The Philippine justice minister promised on Tuesday to launch an investigation after a forensic pathologist said some death certificates issued to victims of the country’s drug crackdown had been falsified to show they died of natural causes died.

The Southeast Asian country has come under international pressure to conduct a thorough investigation into the more than 6,000 people killed by police since President Rodrigo Duterte launched a “war on drugs” after he allegedly committed suicide in 2016. the power had come.

Forensic expert Raquel Fortun, who has been investigating exhumed remains of war victims since July last year, presented her findings after examining 46 people killed in the first year of Duterte’s crackdown.

Of the 46, in one case a death certificate was missing and for many others the certificates were incomplete, Fortun told a media briefing.

Seven death certificates showed the victims died of natural cases such as sepsis, pneumonia and hypertension, she said.

“You have doctors who risk their reputation, names and licenses and forge death certificates,” Fortun said. “There’s a law against this.”

Justice Minister Menardo Guevarra said his office would “investigate and prosecute those responsible for the falsification of the death certificates”.

“This is part of our ongoing review of the drug war campaign that killed suspects during law enforcement operations,” Guevarra told Reuters.

Fortun’s analysis of the excavated remains showed that at least 32 of the 46 died of gunshot wounds. At least 24 of them were shot in the head.

Her findings could cast doubt on the government’s narrative of the war on drugs.

Human rights groups accuse Duterte of inciting deadly violence and say police have murdered unarmed drug suspects on a massive scale as part of the campaign.

The police deny this, and Duterte says the police have orders to kill only in self-defense.

When asked if she saw her findings as indicative of an attempt to cover up deaths from drug wars using fake death certificates, Fortun replied, “I wouldn’t say no.”

But Fortun, who has consulted on many high-profile criminal cases in the Philippines, also believed there was an element of incompetence and underlined the need for a good system to investigate deaths in the country.

“We don’t have a system for investigating deaths. This is hardly taken seriously,” Fortun said. † Reuters