“There was a chance to immediately slow down the killings by signaling to Duterte that the Senate will have none of the EJKs, will condemn them, and that mass murder will be the red line between the two institutions…. It became a whitewash by concluding that the thousands of killings were not state-sponsored, hence signaling the green light to the executive that the Senate will not stand in the President’s way in the killing orgy,” Pilapil said.