Philippine drug war enforcer defends police killing of toddler

MANILA, July 4 (Reuters) - A former police general who
oversaw the bloodiest years of the Philippines' war on drugs on
Thursday shrugged off the killing by police of a 3-year-old girl
in a sting operation, saying the world was not perfect, and
"shit happens".
Ronald dela Rosa, a Senator who once led the crackdown that
has killed thousands of mostly urban poor drug users and
peddlers, said "collateral damage" was inevitable in police
operations, referring to Sunday's killing of toddler Myka Ulpina
in a province near Manila.
Police said the girl was used as a human shield by her
father, a suspected drug dealer who opened fire on them when
they tried to arrest him. The girl's mother has rejected that
version of events.
"We are living in an imperfect world," dela Rosa told a news
conference.
"Would a police officer want to shoot a child? Never,
because they have children as well. But shit happens during
operations."
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the child's
killing should motivate the international community to do
something to prevent more bloodshed.
Last month, 11 U.N. human rights experts called for an
international investigation into the drugs war, due to "a
staggering number of unlawful deaths and police killings", which
the government had shown no interest in investigating.
Critics of President Rodrigo Duterte say his three-year-old
campaign has largely been a failure, intended to create shock
and fear and burnish his tough image without making a dent on
big narcotics syndicates.
Allegations of police cover-ups, summary executions and
planting of drugs and guns are widespread. Police reject those
and say all of the more than 6,000 people they say they have
killed were all armed and had all resisted arrest.
Activists say the number killed in drug-related incidents
could be more than 20,000.
Police spokesman Bernard Banac said officers involved in the
child's killing had been suspended pending an impartial
investigation "to determine which firearm caused the death of
the young girl".
He recounted the police version, that the girl's father
pulled a gun first.
"In that situation it cannot be helped if there was an
accident ... if he used his daughter as a human shield," he told
news channel ANC.
In a Tweet, Jose Manuel Diokno, a top lawyer who has mounted
legal challenges to Duterte's crackdown, said the day of
reckoning would come for abusive police.
"This is not 'shit happens'. This happens when gov't
dispenses justice from guns instead of courts," he said.