[T]he final report of UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, now filed with the United Nations, places Davao’s problem in clear relief.
The report devotes only a few paragraphs to the killings in Davao, but together they are a stinging indictment of Duterte and his administration. “It is a commonplace that a death squad known as the ‘Davao Death Squad’ (DDS) operates in Davao City,” the first sentence of the first paragraph reads.
. . .
His death plunges his four children into the disorienting uncertainty of orphanhood, and refocuses the nation’s attention on extrajudicial killings (and the killing of journalists). But it should also, and finally, force Davao’s residents, especially those belonging to the middle forces, to demand a thorough investigation of the Death Squad, and to reconsider the costs of willed ignorance.
“By all accounts,” Alston wrote, “the mayor has managed to largely insulate his city from the armed conflict and to limit the presence of some kinds of criminal activity. These accomplishments appear to have bought acquiescence in the measures he takes, and the public remains relatively ignorant of the human cost of death squad ‘justice.’”