Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines Under the Precept of Principal-

Agent Relationship; A Corrupt Practice

A Final Paper

Prepared by:
Arabis, Marinela R.
20181-0104
BA Political Science 2nd year

Submitted to:
Ms. Aileen Joy A. Pactao
Instructor 1

Date of Submission
December 06, 2019
Abstract

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 Extrajudicial killings become an object of corruption in the Philippines but somehow
tolerated by the people. It is because the campaign was supported by them (the middle
class and the elite class to be specific). The current administration is open to the society in
the battle of illegal drugs to acquire the betterment of the society through extrajudicial
killings that violates the human rights. This violence is tolerated by the people because they
believe that through this, they will acquire “good governance” under the Duterte
Administration. Hard line policy (war on drug campaign) as they call it, is to justify that the
government is strong enough to implement rules and regulation. But in reality, it causes
another factor or sign of weak institution because the proper process of justice system or
the legal and judicial proceeding is neglected to be followed by the institution itself. Weak
institution resulted the continuation of the emerging corrupt practices despite of the
presence of rule of law that becomes a rule by law under the Duterte Administration that
caused the prevalence corrupt practices among policemen.
This study will be guided by the theoretical framework on weak institutions and the
principal-agent relationship. The issue should be tackled not only through the use of one
theoretical lens but must be examined through institutionalist and rationalist perspective.
The behavior of a person inside and outside the institution will always be the same.
Corruption will always be a result of weak institution. Weak implementation of rules causes
negligence to the existence of Rule of law and will always be the outcome of corruption
practices. Strong foundation must be built from the objectiveness of an individual but this
kind of though will never exist in reality. Whatever it is, a person will be subjective and will
remain subjective in any cases.
Introduction

“Extrajudicial killing was defined as killing due to political affiliation of the victim” that
are not granted by a due process or any legal process of legal execution (Parreño, 2011) In
the Philippines, extrajudicial killing becomes a serious situation that must be ended because
the right to life of an individual is deprive from him and his civil and political rights was also
violated. The institution that is responsible to provide the protection for the security of one’s
life that is somehow seen as an ineffective agency that leads to the prevalence of corrupt
practices, a weak institution that forms a corruption. Through the history of the past
administration in the Philippines in terms of the death that are involve to extrajudicial
killings, Duterte Administration is somehow one of the most tolerated administration. 82%
Pinoys are satisfied with drug war (Flores, 2019), “the people support the campaign against
illegal drugs, but are disappointed with the truthfulness of the police and their unconcern for
the lives of drug suspects. They see the poor as the worst affected, and are very worried
about becoming EJK-victims themselves” (Social Weather Station, 2019). Supported,
commonly by the middle class and the elite class. The victims of the killings or the most
violated rights were from the poor people. The lower class is one of the most deprived class
in the Philippines as of today. There are cases that an influential individual was arrested but
was held off from the execution and was subjected to an investigation. Investigation that the
lower class will never be able to have right now.
Focusing on the case of Extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, this paper seeks to

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examine the relationship between weak institutions and corruption, this will be guided by the
theoretical framework on weak institutions and the principal-agent relationship. Therefore,
this paper suggests that the issue should be tackled not only through the use of one
theoretical lens but must be examined through institutionalist and rationalist perspective.
Philippines, as a Representative Democratic type of government having this kind of
environment is very likely common platform of practicing corruption and the controversial
issue of Extrajudicial killings is somehow one of the ways of corrupt practices where the
“Rule of Law” is greatly violated, as it is called police corruption (Groenendijk N, 1997).
Anyway, why is extrajudicial killing is tolerated in the Philippines, particularly during
Duterte’s Administration? Why do policemen can get away with the charges about EJKs, how
do corruption affect the rule of law in the Philippines? Is corruption a result of weak
institution or weak institution is a result of corruption?

Background

Corruption as a leading issue in the Philippines is always seen as a result of weak

institution that we have through which, corruption is the “misuse of authority” that is taken
into action for the sake of private welfare or interest as Bayley defined it (Groenendijk N,
1997)This phenomena is exclusive to any organization and may be considered as a problem
that is inevitable from it. Corruption however, “takes on many forms of action”, it was
modeled as “umbrella corruption” as it varies on many forms of unethical practices, even on
the smallest type of act where the abuse of power emerges is considered corruption (Aktan,
2015). Extrajudicial killing under the Duterte Administration is considered as one of the most
grievous killings that is tolerated by most of the number of the citizen of the Philippines but
they are disappointed in terms of the justice system and the truthfulness of the police
officer. Thousands of deaths have been reported right after the President, Rodrigo Duterte
took office on June 30, 2016 up until now. His campaign was said to be an act of anti-poor
in which, most of the victims of extrajudicial killing are poor and are not given a proper
judicial process (Social Weather Station, 2019).
Through the views of Neo Institutionalism or New Institutionalism that is commonly
known, “the rules of the game” introduced by North (1991) that oversees the behavior of
the state or the actors in accordance to what action is acceptable or not acceptable to the
structure of the organization that will become the outcomes of an action and the society, as
a large group being governed are the ones that would likely going to suffer or benefit from it
(Kingston & Greif, 2011). Ideally, institution shapes the society because of the establishment
of multiple rules and regulations to the extent of restricting one’s action for the welfare of
another larger number. But in reality, society shapes the institution instead. Rules, as we all
know was made by the people, for the people and was in line to follow the Divine rules. But
a human being is a rational actor and would likely to promote what would benefit them.
Rules that are built maybe in lined with hidden agenda where the benefit they will get was
already secured right after the implementation of the said rules. A weak institution may lead
to the emergence of a prevalence corruption between the agents of the government. The
society is the major sector of the government that are going to suffer from the weak
institution because they will be deprive from their own rights sooner or later.

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 Institution as a collective set of rules that takes on the high level of command such as
the Constitution or the set of laws that is considered as “Supreme to all human beings” and
this organization works for the promotion of the overall welfare of the constituents (De Leon,
2014). But as far as we know, the body of this organization works through the actions made
by the human beings. Some of the laws, maybe made for the promotion of personal gain or
rather to protect the status they currently have. Well, we don’t know the exact reason. Try
to analyze things through putting your feet into someone’s shoes that have the opportunity
to rule or make a change. Do they really promote what’s best for the people without making
sure that they would benefit more from it? People are naturally not contented in a particular
state, right? They tend to want more and seek more dependent on what kind of choice they
would likely to choose and some are considerate enough to follow the good one’s but some
also would do the not so appropriate ways. As to those who consider following the rules,
they were more likely to take the traditional way and those who are more into self-interest
based is assumed to do the other way around. This is the usual perception of an ordinary
person if they analyzed this kind of context.
Principal- agent relationship under the Agency Theory through which both parties
possessed their own interest but one would likely to determine the work to be done and the
other will do the work (this is more likely a contract of both parties) (Chen, 2019). Principal,
the one who determines the work, having the ability to hire the agent is more likely to do
the job of whether to monitor the agent’s behavior or not as long as the benefit from the
performance of the agent is sustained. Agent on the other hand, would do the job
depending on what benefit he may get. There are instances that the agent refuses to
maximize the job because he is more likely to gain larger cost than the benefit he may get.
This may lead to “agency loss”. Agency loss is the conflict between interest of both parties
and an act of an agent in which he overuses the power he has for his own benefit; this is
where the emergence of corruption exists (Seven Pillars Institute, 2019). This kind of
situation occurs when the principal entrusted the decision to the agent. There are
possibilities that the agent would take it as an opportunity to use the decision in order for
him to gain more benefit since principal will not always be able to monitor what the agent
do. This is some kind of behavioral- based contract, an agent in entitled to maximize his
decision and behave according to his own interest. The decision is directly granted to the
agent and was entitled to decide for a particular task. In order to the principal to sustain the
consistency of the performance of the agent, ideally, he must give him a fair benefit from
the objective he wanted the agent to do for him. In reality, the fair benefit that is given
becomes unfair somehow to the principal, but commonly, to those involve or those who are
affected by the act of the agents. On the one hand, even the principal possessed the higher
level of authority, the agent possessed more knowledge because of the nature of doing the
job in accordance to achieve both benefits. On the other hand, the principal somehow sees
what his agent does but refuses to take action because of the satisfaction of sustained
benefit from the performance of the agent. Otherwise, if the benefit that an agent may get
is not inclined to the benefit, he wanted to achieve is more to become an outcome of
emerging problem or the “agency problem” between the relationship of the two parties. This
is where the conflict between the personal interest of both actors emerges.
Extrajudicial Killings Under the War on Drugs

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 “Extrajudicial killing was defined as the deprivation of life without full judicial and legal
process and with the involvement, complexity, or acquiescence of the government” (Ateneo
Human Right Center (AHRC), 2017). “The term is used in international instrument as the
killing without due process of law or any legal process. It is defined by law as killing due to
political affiliation of the victim (Parreño, 2011). Such killing is committed by the arm forces
of the Government without the due process or legal process that is entitled to be given to
every individual. Obviously, extrajudicial killing is a practice of violating one’s “human rights”
by the institution itself.
The “right to life, liberty, and property” is anchored to the Philippine Constitution. This is
the binding rules and principles that serves as a guideline of the behavioral conduct of the
citizen in order to maintain the peace and order of the state (De Leon, 2014). This rules and
principles are for the protection of one’s life in general. However, there are instances that
these rights are abused and sometimes caused a disturbance or violation on others right. We
cannot deny the fact that the free will that are entitled to us somehow used to commit
crimes. That means, if the implementation of rules is weak, the possibilities of committing
crimes is high because the rules that is designed to limit the behavior of a person is weak
enough to be neglected. Those who are giving importance to the laws are more deserving of
the government’s protection. And those who are abusing such right must be punished. “As
to the Philippine Constitution that promotes the importance of every individual’s right to life
and recognized procedural and substantive due process as ones fundamental right” covers
the right of the citizen to be heard, the right to have a fair trial if was accused, right to be
secured at one’s personal homes for unreasonable search and seizures and of course the
right to life and be protected by the government as an entrusted agency” (Ateneo Human
Right Center (AHRC), 2019).
“Under Ferdinand Marcos, the use of coercive type of imposing law is known for him as
an authoritarian during 1970s up to 1980s. 3, 257 personalities were killed under his
administration that was involve to extrajudicial killing and is far lower than the number of
missing individuals in Argentina ranging 8,000. As of 1975- 1985, 737 was gone missing,
around 2,520 were salvage, 3,257 was killed, 35,000 were tortured, and 70,000 individuals
were imprisoned through the punishment granted by the military forces” (McCoy, 2001).
Marcos established fear to everyone as he imposed Martial law for the aim of the betterment
of the country that overrides the rights of every individual to feel secure from their own
country. Fear that was established becomes a threat of losing their life for violating rules,
that will be punished by the military forces as they were empowered by the President that
turns out to be a negligence of the presence of rule of law. The presence of the rule of law
was neglected and a clear violation of human rights is committed under his administration.
Through the following administrations, the number of deaths that are involve to
extrajudicial killing was lessen. As of the Aquino administration, nearly 300 individuals have
been killed as of 2010. He committed “no real progress of justice in any serious abuses and
the ongoing killing of prominent activist that experienced lacking of successful prosecution”
according to the report submitted by the Human Right Watch (Arceo, 2016). The Aquino
administration failed to give justice in every aspect of human rights violation that turns out
to be unfair to the people. His duty as a president was not fulfilled because he failed to

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address and fix the issue. In short, his administration was a defective one in terms of the
effectiveness of the justice system and the prevalence corrupt practices continues.
The Duterte, administration lunched a “war on drugs” campaign that is rampant right
after his first inauguration address as the President of the Philippines on June 30, 2016
(Inquirer, 2016). His policemen killed thousands of people by the year 2016 to 2018. The
campaign or the “Operation Double Barrel” somehow have their prior target aside from
being suspected as a person involve with illegal drugs but someone who are in the lower
class or the poor ones. As of July 2016, to September 2018, 4,948 individuals that are
suspected drug dealers and drug users were killed during the police operation according to
the report of PDEA (Villanueva, 2018). As to the report of the Philippine National Police
(PNP), 22,983 death that is classified as homicide under investigation was counted.
However, there are cases of killings that an unidentified gunman was involve (Felipe, 2018).
These masked gunmen took part to the killings that are believed to be working closely with
the police and killed thousands of individuals. Along with a vast killing, nothing ever goes to
the process of investigation or unfair trial for the victims.
……..
The Duterte Administration promoting a real change in his campaign before he was
elected, a real change that the people wanted to achieved because they see the
defectiveness of the past administration in term of the justice proceeding and they seek to
feel the presence of the justice system as they are hoping for what President Duterte have
planned to fix it. It is certain that the Philippine democratic type of government, suffers from
the defectiveness of implementation of laws and “enforcing the rule of law”. In short, the
Philippines is long before in a state of a weak institution and enforcement of laws that leads
to the emergence of corruption practices. As to the people, they are used to witness the
ineffectiveness of the government to provide equal justice and they see that President
Duterte is fit to fix the government through the “hard line policy” or war on drugs campaign
that is why they tend to support this campaign. The reason behind why the people tolerated
the act of extrajudicial killings that is committed by the Duterte Administration is because the
society is supporting this war on drug campaign that they believed that the order will be
maintained and the government will be fair. But in reality, as we see it, it turns out to be
another kind of corruption inside the institution and another defectiveness of the
implementation of the government.

Corruption Prevalence Among Policemen

“Principle of command responsibility” in the Philippine has been given importance ever
since. It is the responsibility and accountability of the commander for the crimes that are
committed by the agent or subordinate armed forces or policemen under his control in
“international affairs or domestic conflicts” (Ateneo Human Right Center (AHRC), 2017). This
calls for the responsibility of the commander to stand alongside his agent if one of them
commits a crime. The “neglect duty” of the agent is anchored to the command responsibility
of the commander. The duty of the agent must reflect to the objective of the commander, if
it is not inclined to the general objective but the order is continuously sustained, the

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commander is capable to fix it or let it work continuously. Dependent to the benefit they get.
For instance, the President order the policemen to arrest every drug addict personality they
will encounter at anytime and anywhere. The objective of the president is to lessen the
number of drug addict and the use of illegal drug in any ways. The policemen as an agent
are ordered to do the work. The performance of the agent maybe classified in to two
actions: i) the agent acts in accordance to do his work that is based on the rules and laws
provided by the Constitution (if the laws are consistently enforced) or based on rule of law,
and ii) the agent maximized his power to do his job according to his own interest to the
extent of violating laws, rights and principles, that is dependent on the instances of agents
“imminent danger” of life that is called “justifying circumstances in which the agent is
allowed to use excessive force for his self-protection that is somehow used as an excused
since evidences are not presented.” (Ateneo Human Right Center (AHRC), 2017). Even
either of these actions is performed by the agent, possible circumstances are unpredictable.
Such as, the suspected personalities may act aggressively to the extent of shootouts that
may lead to death either of them, maybe both. However, either of this act may obtain the
achievement of the objective, but since the right to life of a person is in lined, both actions
are considered as a violation of the “Rule of Laws” because they may take away life of
someone living.
“The police forces were regarded as one of the most corrupt institution in the
Philippines”. One of the most significant issue in the Philippines involving the armed forces is
the “extrajudicial killings and the enforced disappearances” as a result of the violation of
human rights according to the annual report of the US State Department (2015). 2,250
suspected drug users were killed and 3,710 personalities was killed due to unexplained
circumstances as part of the war on drug campaign by the current Philippine administration
(Morella & Agence France- Presse, 2017) The behavior of the policemen is dependent to
what and how the president delivers his command. The president directly commanded the
Police forces to kill all those who are involve to illegal drugs and the police and even civilians
were entitled to do it. That’s why there are accounts that tackles the involvement of
unidentified gunmen participating into the killings. The order is open for the interpretation of
the police whether to act in accordance to the “rule of law” or act depending to the “rule by
law”. The former is a process that is giving importance to the role and the existence of the
rule of law in which the police officer would rather catch the suspected person and detain
him and wait for the proper judicial process that will decide if he was guilty and be punished
or will be held off because he was innocent, rather than killing him and deprive from him his
rights. This is an act of objectiveness. The latter is what is happening to the Philippines. In
contrast to the rule of law, rule by law is a subjective type of enforcing or implementing
rules. Whatever it takes, the order must be done. Even to violate the human right as long as
the use of illegal drug is crack down.
Reports from the Amnesty International said that the extrajudicial killings become a
business or what they call it “an economy of murder” in which killing was done in order for
them to get the incentives that is inclined to every killed drug users and pushers. There are
also incidents that the police officer was paid by the morgue owner in exchange of bringing
the dead bodies to them and there are also reports that the policemen robbed something to
the homes that are raided such us laptops, phones and such (Mollman, 2017). Such crime

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shows that the agent (Policemen) maximizes his action because of the incentives inclined to
the objective of the principal (President). The policemen came up with the idea because the
President’s prior objective is to kill every drug personality in any ways, it was taken by the
policemen as a strong support and even help them to be more eager to kill. The chances of
killing innocent people is high because the agent will always find its way to gain benefit and
use the objective of the principal in the wrong use.

Weak Institution and Corruption

Justice system in the Philippines is one of the results of the continuing prevalence
corruption of the policemen of the armed forces in the Philippines. Such crimes committed
by the police officers were done because of the direct command by the President and the
accountability of the president was granted to them in order to achieved his goal to crack
down the excessive use of illegal drug to the extent of a clear violation or neglecting the
proper procedure of judicial execution because his order was to kill every single individual
that are involve to the use or dealing with illegal drug. His way of command was open ever
since he was in his presidential election campaign promoting that he will order the police to
kill every drug addict. However, according to the report from the different sources, multiple
victims were not involved to any drug practices but was killed and are deprive to have a fair
trial. This is considered that the institution has failed to enforce the proper proceeding and
the implementation is weak enough to assume that the institution is weak and the corruption
practices was a result of it. Since the institution is weak when it comes to implementation,
the corrupt practices is always there, not only as to the practice of extrajudicial killings but
also the unevenness of the judiciary in the Philippines (La Viña, 2018).
"The rule of law remains uneven, and the legal framework is deficient in independence and
efficiency. The cumbersome court system and loose regard for contracts continue to be
causes for concern. The judiciary is nominally independent but susceptible to political
interference. Despite some progress, government anti-corruption efforts have been too
inconsistent to eradicate bribery and graft effectively," the report stated.

Conclusion

Extrajudicial killing is not just a form of corruption which is attributed to agency problem
but reinforced by weak institution. Because of the weak institution, such implementation and
enforcement of the rules is not effective enough to scare those who practice corruption
because they already know how to get themselves out of the judgement. The current
administration is tolerated by the people because they are used to the defectiveness or the
failure of the past administrations in the Philippines in which, the justice system is not
effective enough or the enforcement of the laws is not strong when it comes to
implementation from the very start. Certainly, the justice system of the Philippines is not fair
to everyone. And the reality is, those who are influential enough can have a fair trial in
judicial proceedings and may have a proper investigation and the poor ones are being ignore
and deprive from their civil rights and also their human rights. However, this was supported

8
by the people, the middle class and the elites in particular, because justice is slow, the
institution is weak in terms of addressing the effectiveness of enforcement of the laws and
judicial proceeding is not objective enough to have a fair judgement that is why they seek to
have change and put their full support to the current administration and tolerate the act of
killings as they believed that it is justifiable. They see the administration as different from
the past administrations because of the war on drug campaign and consider it as a “hard line
policy” in which the strong fist of the president seek to crack down the corruption in the
Philippines but turns out to be the emergence of another corrupt practice that violates the
human rights through the extrajudicial killings committed by the policemen. Despite of the
number of deaths that are commonly from the lower class, most of the people in the society
let the administration do their work and supports the acts hoping for the changes of the
government and to seek good governance.
The people of the Philippines suffer from the weak institutions right now and the
corruption is prevalence to the policemen because the President himself gives a “go signal”,
as Ms. Jazelle Zerrudo call it, to the armed forces such as his direct command to kill in his
war on drug campaign. Corruption has been an outcome of the pressure that was the
policemen have because of the quota that is given to them as how many drug addict and
drug lords will be caught or killed in order to have the inclined incentives. As a rational
being, they commit crimes for the benefit inclined to it that caused a vast and prevalent
corruption in the police institution that lead to a confirmation of the weak institution and the
most corrupt one. Incentives and not the human rights are somehow prior to the institution,
not in general, but somehow most of them.
Corruption is a result of weak institution and not the other way around. Corruption is
inevitable to every individual, I conclude. As a human being, having the autonomy to do
whatever we want may always end up corrupting someone’s thing. Our action will never
reflect just to ourselves but always affecting others. As I believe that, everything is
interconnected, one’s action may affect another in a positive or negative outcome dependent
on how others interpret the action or how they take it. Since institution is govern by a group
of individual, having different autonomy, conflicting actions will always be there as they
promote what they want that leads to a failure of overall outcomes. It is possible to be
objective to achieved everyone’s goal but it will always fall into a subjective thing because an
individual will always secure the benefit of such act will be achieved for their own
happiness.

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