Chapter 2 NARRATIVES OF EJKS
STORIES about summary executions do not find easy and immediate closure. Press reports, especially in the years 2016 and 2017, kept on flowing on a daily basis about the extrajudicial killings (EJKs), necessitating countercheck to verify their veracity and character. For our part, independent confirmations have to be pursued through talks with families of victims and witnesses. We cannot rely on press reports because they are insufficient. Moreover, a number of EJKs went unreported in the mass media. We neither read them in print media, notably the newspapers – both broadsheet and tabloid dailies, which scream with headlines on EJK incidents, nor watch or hear news over radio and television. We do not find them in nontraditional media either, primarily social media.1
Furthermore, the issue of underreported deaths is being compounded by sloppy police works on the investigative aspects of summary executions. Police reporting was wanting in its scope, diligence, veracity, and authenticity. Lawyers, who have been involved in the investigation and prosecution of police officers in these EJKs, have found out that police reports on those violent deaths lacked details and incurred alterations to justify the “nanlaban” (he fought back) narratives. Their preoperation and postoperation reports of the police buy bust operations contained questionable details. Most police reports were spot reports on what transpired but because they hardly had followup operations, they did not have progress reports. It was a big question if these probes were deliberately muddled up to create confusion and lead interested parties like lawyers and human right groups to different conclusions.2
Because of the lack of access to these police reports, certain families of EJK victims have hardly pursued court cases against the involved police officers. They have been discouraged by the absence of official documents from which to build court cases against the police officers. This was not all. The war on drugs has become more complicated and confused by the use and involvement of unidentified masked vigliante forces, who went on sprees of abductions and murders of suspected drug users and pushers. Because they were not identified, the victims’ families could not pursue any legal remedy or court cases against them.4
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WE talked to four mothers, whose sons and even grandsons were slain by police officers – all in the name of war on drugs. Three mothers – Sara Celis, Brenda Victorio, and Elena Gonzales - came from the depressed communities in the North Caloocan City district of Bagong Silang, while one mother – Natividad Castillo – came from the Manila’s workingmen’s district of Tondo. The four mothers have given their stories for inclusion in the crimes against humanity charges against Duterte and his minions before the ICC. They coursed them through lawyer Edwin Fernandez of the Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a non-government organization (NGO ) that represents families of victims of EJKs in various fora, including the ICC. In other instances, some quarters opposing the war on drugs supplied us with details on certain cases of EJKs. Nevertheless, we were gratified by their inordinate drive and enthusiasm to explain the side of the victims, the silenced ones.5
We have likewise dug the cases of other EJK victims, mostly high profile. They are the celebrated 2016 Payatas Massacre, the treacherous murders of father and son Renato and Jaypee Bertes of Pasay City, Joselito Gonzales of Antipolo City, the murder of the 17-year Japanese-Filipino student Hideyoshi Kawata, among others. In these instances of EJKs, we have noted that it was the families of the victims, who have suffered most because the victims were mostly breadwinners. The social stigma attached to the death of their family members to EJKs was devastating, to say the least.
Their families could not ask assistance from their barangays and local officials. In almost all instances, barangay and local officials refused to extend any help to their families. Local officials took a distance from providing help to families of EJK victims, believing this act could spell doom to their political careers and adversely affect their political standing and chances in the next political exercises. In most cases, families of victims go to the Church, mainly its social action units, or civil society organizations, which have been formed to help the families of victims in the form of legal and financial assistance. There is no self help among them.6
Every EJK, it appears, is sui generis, or one of its kind. Every EJK has its own life and dynamics, or even set of peculiarities. Families of victims, who have resolutely brought their cases before the bar of justice and follow the rule of law and its flipside, due process, have to live with the circuitous processes, leading to despair, boredom and surrender. In many instances, they get tired, bored, and irked by the twists and turns or the unpredictable nature of the legal processes. The explanation is that they largely have the wherewithal and patience for the long-drawn processes. In many instances, they have fallen prey to cooptation, leading them to issue affidavits of desistance and motions to withdraw from the court suits they had earlier filed. In one instance, the wife of an EJK victim has engaged in prostitution to eke out a living. The devil is in the process - and in the details too.
SARA CELIS NARRATIVE. Sara Celis, a mother in her 60s, has an interesting story. She lost two sons in a span of six months to summary executions. The first to fall was older son, Almol, who was shot dead by unidentified police officers on February 6, 2017. Almol, a blue collar worker who painted houses, went to the wake of a friend, a compadre, in another area not far from the Celis’s house, where he and his family lived too. By that time, many people in the community noticed the presence of a multitude of police officers, who milled in the wake’s area called “Itaas” because it is situated in the elevated portion of the community. When Almol reached the wake, a commotion suddenly occurred. Police officers chased an unidentified person. Alarmed by the commotion, Almol was said to have raised instinctively his hands, but police officers shot him for no apparent reason, according to mother Sara Celis. Almol suffered four gunshot wounds; one on the head and three on his breast. Police took him to hospital but he was declared “dead on arrival.” Celis claimed that Almol did not use drugs. He left a wife and five children. Sara Celis claimed she is now forced to share with Almol’s widow the burden to support her grandchildren. Almol was the sole family breadwinner.
Sara claimed that when Almol was brought to the hospital, four police officers were there asking questions about his son. An informant, whom she knew, noticed that they seemed to know beforehand that his son was to be brought there. Sara claimed that certain police officers asked her to name a “Joey Cadena,” a notorious underworld character in Caloocan City, as the assailant, who shot and killed her son. She did not know Joey Cadena from Adam but she was surprised to learn that five months after his son’s death, police killed Joey Cadena in an alleged shootout. Because he was dead, his son’s case died too. There was no follow-up probe whatsoever. Police officers, who were allegedly involved in his son’s death, went scot free.
Six months later, it was the turn of younger son Dickie to fall. He was alighting from a tricycle after buying food from the market, when several police officers surrounded and took him for a purported routine check at the police station. “Hihiramin lang namin ang anak mo (We’ll borrow your son),” a police officer told the mother. Dickie was killed inside the police station, according to Sara Celis, citing witnesses, who were jailed at the station. She could not say if her son was a drug pusher or user, although she knew their community place teemed with numerous drug users and pushers. Police officers took Dickie in a police vehicle to the station. “Nilagyan ng pulis ng itim na tela sa ulo si Dickie at saka dinala sa presinto (Police put a black cloth on Dickie’s head as he was brought to the station),” Dickie’s sister said.
Worried after her son did not go home, Sara Celis first went to the barangay hall by midnight and then to the police station but to no avail. By 4 am, she received a text message from her daughter that Dickie was already dead. She could not do anything. Her entire family was at a loss on what to do next. She barely knew the family’s rights in these two incidents of summary executions. Some friends in the community later advised her to bring the two incidents before the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), which later initiated the Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an NGO for the families of EJK victims. By that time, the NUPL was initiating an information to bring to the ICC.
Sara said her residence area was often subject to casing by unidentified police officers from Bagong Silang Phase One Police Station. They were not in uniform, although they were known in the barangay. “Dati takot ako, ngayon hindi. Paano mabibigyan ng hustisya ang mga pinatay kung takot ka rin? (Before, I was afraid but not now. How the victims would be given justice if I am afraid too)?” she said rhetorically. The separate deaths of her two sons were never carried by traditional media although she is in possession of the police reports and death certificates, copies of which she showed during the interview.
BRENDA VICTORIO NARRATIVE. Brenda Victorio admitted that her son was a small drug dealer. On October 9, 2016, an unidentified police officer, who knew his son’s involvement in illegal drug trade in the North Caloocan City area, asked him to give him sachets of shabu worth P200. The police officer asked him to bring the sachets in the City Hall of North Caloocan City because they were supposed to be used as “planted evidence” on an Oplan Tokhang victim. His son Roderick Nulud agreed to the request but not without tagging along Roderick’s son, Raymond John, 19. On that day, Victorio received a text message from an acquitance asking her to go to Zapote Road, a street near the City Hall. She saw her son and grandson laying prostrate on the ground, both dead. Witnesses narrated that they saw motorcycle-riding men chasing Roderick and Raymond John. They were shot dead. “Parang shooting sa pelikula (It was like shooting scenes in a movie)” they said. Their murder happened in broad daylight. Police treated the people in the area to a chase and shoot scene
According to Victorio, she never denied that her son was a drug pusher. He was jobless and occasionally worked as a jeep barker to earn a living. As a jeep barker, he mingled with fellow drug users and pushers. Because the income was good, he focused on being a pusher. The sachets of shabu worth P200 was to be used as planted evidence on a pusher “to make it appear he was big time” But it indeed led to his own murder. Victorio said. They could not do anything because his son was involved in drug trade. They tried to go to Mayor Oscar Malapitan to ask for whatever help he could provide, but the local official took distance from them. He shunned them. It is true that local officials do not help the families of the EJK victims, she said. SOCO operatives told them to claim from a certain funeral parlor the bodies of his son and grandson. Victorio said she was surprised when its manager asked P50,000 for the two bodies. The amount covered the expenses for the coffins and funeral services, the manager told her. It took them two weeks to raise P50,000 to claim their bodies.
According to Victorio, her son was twice arrested for drug pushing. Each time he was arrested, police asked P20,000 for his freedom. His son had an employer in the drug trade and that his presence explained his release. His employer was allegedly a resident in the district of Tala in North Caloocan City. Because his son resided in her house and her house was used for drug pushing, Brenda was earlier arrested. Police asked P50,000 to set her free, but because she haggled, she was set free after she gave P7,000, although she claimed she was not in anyway involved in drug pushing. His grandson was in school and he was not engaged in drug pushing too. The other grandson is married and his wife has an uncle, who was one of the alleged killers of his son. She has endorsed his son’s murder to the Rise Up for inclusion in the information.
ELENA GONZALES NARRATIVE. Elena Gonzales readily admitted that his son Lemond Gonzales was a drug user. A group of police officers forcibly entered their house on June 21, 2017. They asked all household members to go out of the house and walk to the nearest store in the corner, while pretending they were about to arrest Lemond. Hardly they had few steps outside the house, they heard four consecutive gunshots. The incident happened in their house in Phase 2 of the Bagong Silang district in North Caloocan City. The police officers did not arrest Lemond but shot him inside the toilet, where he was defecating at the time of their arrival. She said Lemond was suffering from a stomach ailment at that time.
Gonzales said there was no investigation. Nothing followed after the incident. She went to police to inquire and ask for an official investigation, but she was given alibis. She said she was resigned that police would not move to solve the issue. Her son’s death was just part of the statistics. They sat on his son’s death. She said she could not expect justice from the Duterte government. She said she has brought the issue of his son’s death to Rise Up for Life and for Rights, a civil society organization that has established links with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other human rights organizations. She expressed hope that the crimes against humanity charges against Rodrigo Duterte and his ilk would prosper.
NATIVIDAD CASTILLO NARRATIVE. Her son Aldrin Castillo was gunned down at the corner of Herbosa and Yangco Streets in Tondo on October 2, 2017. Castillo, a welder, visited her married sister, who lived in the area, to install the air conditioning unit in her house and bid her goodbye because he was about to leave to work as an overseas Filipino contract worker (OFW) in a Middle East country. Because it was early evening, Aldrin Castillo did not leave immediately after his visit to his sister. They were raised by their parents in that area and he knew many friends and acquaintances there. Aldrin was talking to friends at the intersection, when several police mobile cars roved at that time. Finally, he was caught surprised when a motorcycle-rising tandem materialized from nowhere and shot him four times – two on the chest and one each on his cheek and neck. He died instantly. Aldrin did not use drugs, but appeared to be a random victim of violence in pursuit of the police objective to bring dead bodies before the altar of the war on drugs.
News about his murder spread quickly. His mother, Natividad Castillo, who was in Caloocan City, rushed to the scene after she received several text messages informing her of Aldrin’s fate. “Halos mabaliw ako dahil sa nangyari sa anak ko. Mabuti na lang nahawakan ko ang kamay niya bago siya alisin sa kalsada,” (I almost lost my sanity at what happened to my son. It was good thing I was able to hold his hand before his body was removed from the street.), Natividad said. She said she noticed that the CCTV camera although functional at the time of her son’s assassination was turned away to a different direction to avoid recording what had happened in the area where her son was shot dead. Nobody could say who did it. There was hardly any police investigation and, according to her, she and her husband felt helpless because they could not go to any state agency to seek justice. Like any other mother, whose son was killed by police officers or vigilante groups, she was ignored by the authorities, when she sought for an official investigation.
From the summary execution of her son, Natividad Castillo has metamorphosed to become a street parliamentarian, or political activist. Although she did not finish high school, she has learned numerous things to become knowledgeable of the burning issues of the day. “I did not care in the past. I was happy to eat three meals a day and be with friends,” she said. Her son’s death opened new vistas for her to explore. In 2018, she spoke before an international human rights forum in The Hague, The Netherlands. She narrated her son’s murder to prove Duterte was bent to kill people with impunity. She is now a volunteer of the Rise Up for Life and for Rights. She helps in conducting house-to-house visits and talking to the families, scheduling meetings, and doing other things she can do for the organization. She is also involved in the counseling of the families of EJK victims.7
‘QUOTA SYSTEM’. The four mothers unanimously expressed the belief that police officers had quotas to meet and fulfill in the bloody war on drugs. Police officers were given a number of deaths to meet for a certain period of time and this was shown by the fact EJKs have become rampant, indiscriminate, and random to include innocent persons. Moreover, they believed too that the antidrug campaign has become difficult to control. Duterte, through dela Rosa and other PNP officials, could have set a specific number of victims to force police officers to kill and meet the specified number. “This eventually points to the quota system,” according to Natividad Castillo, whose son was an EJK victim. Any failure to meet the quota was being frown upon and it was not good for the reputation of the police officers.
There was also the “palit ulo” (change head) scheme. Police would force a suspect of drug trade to identify users and pushers in a certain barangay. If he refuses, he would be killed and be counted as among the EJK victims. But if he cooperates and points to another guy, police would spare his life but kill the other guy. In some operations, when police officers could not find the targets, other guys would have to replace them. This was a scheme that worked so well in many operations. They were included in the pieces of information, which several parties have submitted separately to the ICC in the crimes against humanity charges against Duterte and his cohorts. Either through the quota system or the “palit-ulo” scheme, ordinary citizens are losers because of the police incompetence to do its job.
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THE ‘PAYATAS MASSACRE’
On the night of August 14, 2016, a Sunday, Erwin “Cherwen” Polo celebrated his birthday and his subsequent employment by hosting a drinking session with friends in a humble abode in the poverty stricken Quezon City district of Payatas, which is known for being the dumping ground of truckloads of garbage collected in Metro Manila. It was nearing midnight, when operatives of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) barged into their house and shot dead Polo and his three friends. According to wife Katrina, in a case she filed with the Commission Human Rights (CHR), she arrived home at around 11 pm and she saw a seemingly drunk Erwin sleeping on their bed, while another guest, a certain Rambo, was sleeping on a couch. Only guests Harold Arevalo, Darwin Hamoy, and William Bordeos were still drinking on the second floor of the house, according to Katrina.8
At around 11:45 pm, Darwin Hamoy, 17, went out of the house to buy cigarettes at a store beside the Polo residence. While he was out, police operatives arrived and knocked on the door of the Polo’s house. When William Bordeos opened it, police immediately gunned him down. A police operative went upstairs, where Edwin Polo was sleeping. He shot dead Polo and Rambo. After hearing six gunshots, wife Katrina stepped out of the room in the first floor. She saw at least five police officers. She pleaded for her life and the three children’s. They were asked to leave the house but they refused. Six more police officers went inside the house. This time, they dragged them out. While outside, she claimed to have heard two more gunshots.
Meanwhile, Arevalo escaped by jumping out of a window in the second floor. He landed on the neighbor’s roof, which was destroyed by the impact of his jump. Arevalo emerged limping, but he was the lone survivor. Witnesses claimed Arevalo invoked to the police operatives that he was a member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) and its unnamed security group. The INC was said to be supportive of Duterte war’s on drive.9 They spared Arevalo. Even out of the house, Hamoy was also gunned down, as police officers caught him buying cigarettes from the store. Shot dead in that police operations, which media called the “Payatas Massacre,” were Polo, Bordeos, Hamoy, and Rambo. Their families, except Rambo’s, had chosen to seek remedial measures through the CHR. They asked for an investigation on the circumstances of their death. Rambo’s family refused to cooperate in any way possible.
In her statement, Katrina Polo claimed police dragged the bodies out of the house and placed them inside the sacks. They loaded the sacks on a barangay patrol vehicle and brought them to the Quezon City General Hospital in Project 8, but police said they were not admitted because they were already dead. They brought them later to the East Avenue Medical Center, a hospital along East Avenue in Quezon City.
‘NANLABAN’ NARRATIVE. Police claimed the usual narrative of “nanlaban,” or that Polo and friends were claimed to have resisted arrest and fought back, compelling the raiding police officers “to shoot back” and kill them without hesitation. The “nanlaban,” or literally “he resisted arrest and fought back” narrative was a worn out but official excuse for police officers to kill their targets. While four bodies were identified to have been involved in the Payatas massacre, it was a curious incident that a fifth body was included in the array of victims. The cadaver of a certain”Choloy,” whose identity was not immediately known, was added in the police report as among the victims. Although his body was later claimed, his family did not pursue any case against police operatives.
Arevalo, survived the police attack, but the barging police officers, nonetheless, filed on August 17, 2016, a case of direct assault against Harold Arevalo before the Metropolitan Trial Court of Quezon City. Police alleged that Arevalo assaulted and employed personal violence upon the persons of PO1 Wilson Escuro and PO1 Herbert Angoluan together with other members of the raiding team, who were members of Batasan Police Station 6–Station Anti Illegal Drugs Special Operation Task Group, while “in the performance of their official duties.” In a decision on November 17 , 2017, the trial court acquitted Arevalo because of the prosecution’s failure to show positively that Arevalo traded shots with the police officers, who killed his friends in an alleged buy bust operation on August 15, 2016.10
The involved police officers were: Police Superintendent Lito E Patay, who was then PS-6 Station Commander; SPO2 Carlo Sabella; SPO2 Malvin A. Merida; SPO2 Rhodolf C. Makie; SPO1 Ronie D. Banggat. Also involved were SPO1 Jun Ralph P. Piñero, Team Leader P03 Dennis A. Pal; PO3 Richard B. Timon; PO3 Edilberto B. Vargas Jr. ; PO3 Nonilon M. Laberon; PO3 Michael D. Maderable; PO2 Amiruddin D. Ibrahim; P02 Albert B. Pombo; PO2 Andy C. Andlawan; PO2 Herbert S. Angoluan, who was the immediate back-up officer; PO2 Wilson E. Escuro, who was poseur-buyer; and PO2 Charles Owen C. Molinos.
The official August 15, 2016 blotter report, prepared by PO1 Glenda Galang of Batasan Police Station-6, did not mention the raiding police officers’ forcible entry into Polo’s residence, but indicated that a “shootout” occurred outside, not inside, the Polo residence. It said that the EJK victims were “strategically positioned nearby,” when police operatives engaged in a buy-bust operations in the vicinity. The report said: ”It was at this juncture, when the suspects suddenly pulled their handguns and fired towards the direction of the police operatives. SPO1 [Ralph] Pinero and his team retaliated, resulting in the neutralization of the suspects.” Despite the claimed firefight, the police side strangely did not suffer any casualty.
Strangely, the two-page police blotter report did not mention the names of Bordeos, Hamoy, and “Rambo”, but added a sixth one, who was not in Polo’s birthday party. He was Sherwin Ternal, or the one who carried the alias “Chocoy” of Everlasting Street in Barangay Payatas. It said Arevalo and Polo were rushed to the East Avenue Medical Center. Polo was declared “dead on arrival” at 3:40 am of Aug. 15, 2016, while Arevalo was given medical treatment. Hewas the lone survivor. The four other bodies were brought to Quezon City General Hospital and were subsequently declared “dead on arrival” at 2:40 am.
TWISTS AND TURNS. The issue of the Payatas Massacre did not end immediately. Unlike most EJK cases, where police hardly conducted any investigation or conducted what could be regarded “token probes,” the wives of the slain husbands exhausted legal measures to bring the involved police officers before the court or any other appropriate forum. Days after the murder of their husbands, the trio of Katrina Polo, Marlyn Bordeos, and Mariza Hamoy filed a case of human rights violations before the Commission Human Rights (CHR) against the 16 police officers. The law creating the CHR does not provide the CHR as an institution with prosecutorial powers. But it could investigate cases of alleged human rights violations and come out with findings that could establish the bases for prosecution in court.
In their defense, PO1 Herbert Angoluan and PO1 Wilson Escuro submitted a counteraffidavit on November 4, 2016, alleging a legitimate buy bust operation took place on August 14, 2016. They alleged that a confidential informant, whom they did not name, told them in an unspecified way that a drug trade would take place the next day, involving a certain “Erwin.” They conducted a surveillance and proved that the information relayed by the informant was “correct.” On August 15, they formed a team for the alleged buy bust, where Escuro was the alleged poseur buyer, while Angoluan was to serve as the alleged back up.
According to them, during the supposed buy bust, they alleged that the persons they were dealing with found out they were police officers and that they suddenly found themselves in a gun fight. Escuro allegedly dodged the bullets. The two police officers alleged they had no choice but to protect themselves, pushing them to shoot back on them. When the firing stopped, they alleged the team entered the house, where they found the wounded. They claimed that they carefully lifted the wounded. They were brought to the hospital with an ambulance to the QCGH first, where they were rejected leading them to bring them to East Avenue Medical Center in the Diliman district. They alleged to have recovered five high caliber guns and other drug paraphernalia. They also alleged that their act of to rush them to the hospital saved the life of Arevalo, who posted bail for the case of assault they filed against him.
On March 20 2017, the CHR found the police respondents liable for human rights violations based on the following findings: first, Katrina Polo’s statement gave detailed accounts; second the statements of PO1 Angoluan and PO1 Escuro were in general terms and not in details particularly the buy-bust transaction. According to the CHR, the statements of police respondents contained inconsistencies that cast doubt on its veracity. Angoluan and Escuro stated that on August 14, 2016, claimed a reliable informant told them the illegal drug trade activity of a person known only as alias “Erwin” at Lower Sampaguita Ext. (aka “Kampo”) Barangay Payatas in Quezon City. They conducted a surveillance operation allegedly to verify the information, which they claimed to be “true.”
But in the Joint Affidavit of Arrest, which they executed on August 16, 2016, they did not mention the conduct of surveillance operations. They only stated that on August 14, 2016 at around 7 pm, their reliable confidential informant arrived in their office and informed them he saw the alleged pusher identified as “Erwin” was allegedly selling “shabu” at the “Kampo.” They said that acting on the information, their station commander allegedly directed them to hatch a plan to conduct appropriate police operations, arrest, and file appropriate charges in court against the person if evidence warranted. They alleged that at about 11:00 pm, their team was dispatched to the place of operation to the Kampo. This was contrary to their counteraffidavit where they claimed that “The finding of the undersigned were relayed to our station commander and on August 15, 2016, instruct us with Jun Ralph Pinero to form a team and devise plan to gain evidence in order to effect the arrest of alias Erwin.”
DRUG OPERATIONS. SPO1 Ralph Pinero alleged that on August 15, 2016, he was designated by their station commander as leader of the team to conduct a police anti-illegal drug operations. The same was true with other respondent police officers, who stated than on August 15, 2016, they were all summoned by SPO1 Pinero, under their station commander’s instruction, to be part of the team aimed to conduct the said operations. These were contrary to the what was stated in the Affidavit of Arrest executed by Angoluan and Escuro, who both stated that Erwin Polo’s cohorts engaged in a drug pot session inside his house, while respondents were outside Polo’s house. The CHR ruled the case to be forwarded to the Office of the Ombudsman for the filing of proper criminal and administrative charges.
On November 7, 2017, Katrina Polo, Marlyn Bordeos, and Mariza Hamos wrote lawyer Alfegar Triambulo, PNP Inspector General, to say they were filing a joint administrative complaint before the PNP Internal Affairs Service against the police operatives from the QCPD Station 6. They requested that an investigation be conducted on the Payatas Massacre. They asked for the investigation of former QCPD Station 6 Chief Supt. Lito Enking Patay and his team of police operatives. They charged Patay committed two counts of grave neglect of duty, while the following police officers committed a single count of neglect of duty: SPO2 Carlo Sabella; SPO2 Malvin A. Merida; SPO2 Rhodolf C. Makie; SPO1 Ronie D. Banggat; SPO1 Jun Ralph P. Piñero; P03 Dennis A. Pal; PO3 Richard B. Timon; PO3 Edilberto B. Vargas Jr. ; PO3 Nonilon M. Laberon; PO3 Michael D. Maderable; PO2 Amiruddin D. Ibrahim; P02 Albert B. Pombo; PO2 Andy C. Andlawan; PO2 Herbert S. Angoluan; PO2 Wilson E. Escuro; and PO2 Charles Owen C. Molinos. They charged them with grave misconduct and(violation of Art. 248 “Murder” of Revised Penal Code), grave irregularity in the performance of duty, and conduct unbecoming of police officers. The report was also submitted to the PNP Chief at that time. However, no result came out from the recommendation.
They also filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for murder and violation of Section 29 of RA 9165, or “planting of evidence.” In an order on May 16, the 16 respondent police officers were ordered to file a counteraffidavit. On June 11, 2018, the police respondents filed their joint consolidated counteraffidavit, stating that they acted in self-defense and, ergo, they could be charged with murder. They claimed “it was a legitimate buy bust operation at the time of the incident.” They claimed the victims were part of the drug watch list in PS-6 Batasan area and that “they were notorious drug pushers in the area.”
WITHDRAWAL. The respondent police operatives submitted the March 8, 2018 “sinumpaang salaysay” (sworn affidavit) by Katrina Polo, who recanted everything she stated in her earlier affidavits and complaint with the CHR. She alleged that she was not present when her husband was killed and her original statement with the CHR was untrue, claiming she was “pressured” by the media and other people to pursue a case against the police. She recanted the statements made by her child, who also testified at the CHR and corroborated her original testimony. She claimed that her husband informed her that “he was to have a deal on that day, which was timely as he would be celebrating with his friends.” She claimed that the shooting encounter between her husband and the police was “true as her husband was always carrying a firearm with him.” Lastly, she said that she was withdrawing the complaint she filed against the police.
On July 12 2018, the Office of the Ombudsman ruled to dismiss the case against all the police officers. The OMB Resolution reads: “This Office is inclined to sustain respondent’s defense. Complainants Mariza and Marilyn were not present during the incident. Their statement relative thereto are hearsay and do not deserve credence.”
It said: “Evidently, complainants failed to discharge the burden. Further, their attempt to ascribe the death of their relatives to respondents is highly suspect considering that all of them were in different location at the time of the gunfight. This Office cannot also give credence to the statement of ten-year old daughter, who was unassisted when she signed her Sinumpaang Salaysay. Harold Arevalo did not support the complainant’s allegations. The fact that he now stands trial for direct assault before Branch 41 of Metropolitan Trial Court strengthens respondents’ claim that he and the alleged victims engaged the police officers in gunfight during the incident.”
PROCEED WITH THE CASE. The next day, Mariza Hamoy, mother of Darwin Hamoy, filed a letter with the Office of the Ombudsman that she would like to proceed with the complaint against the police officers. She said she wanted to give information regarding a similar case pending before RTC QC Branch 4. The Office of the Deputy Ombudsman claimed that it does not have a copy of the records of the Law Enforcement Officers Q.C. (RAS-P-17-0285). Meanwhile, Katrina Polo and Marilyn Bordeos jointly filed a motion to withdraw the case on May 23, 2018.
The third complainant Mariza Hamoy refused to cooperate. Now, only Hamoy's case stands against the Station 6 cops. “I was angry. When I saw them again, I couldn't even speak. I just knew they had switched sides," Hamoy said. “Win or lose, I'll continue the case. You will never hear me giving up on it, even if I have to fight on my own.” In a way, their desistance to continue the case show what could be regarded a “prosecution fatigue,” which is quite common among people of limited means to pursue cases to their completion.11
Hamoy’s case is now being handled by private firms Lente and Artikulo Tres, among the new law groups that took up the challenge of helping the drug war survivors. “The times are extraordinary so we need to respond," says Lente director May Butoy. “The demand of the times is for us to document [these cases] so [the survivors] can seek accountability later on.” Hamoy’s case has fallen into the lap of lawyer Dino de Leon. It has to progress by all means to find a closure on the Payatas Massacre. Meanwhile, on Nov 17, 2017, Judge Anlie Oga-Brual of QC Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 41 acquitted Harold Arevalo of the assault charges.
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THE DAVAO CONNECTION
ONE of the award-winning special features article of the Reuters news agency on Duterte’s war on drugs led off with the anecdotal tale about how the more than a dozen police operatives, who stormed the house of couple Erwin and Kathryn Polo in the depressed district of Payatas in Quezon City, spoke in Visayan, or Cebuano, the dialect in the southern Philippine port city of Davao. Tagalog is the dialect spoken in Metro Manila and it is uncommon that the Visayan dialect is spoken unless the persons involved in a conversation have come from the same region, where the dialect is widely spoken.12
The Tagalog dialect is the main language of personal and commercial intercourse in the Metro Manila, or the National Capital Region (NCR), and the adjoining provinces and regions that include the entire Southern Tagalog region composed of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon, Aurora, and Camarines Norte, and a big part of Central Luzon region composed of the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Bulacan, Zambales, and Tarlac. The national language under the 1987 Constitution is the Filipino, but it should be noted that it is based on Tagalog. The Filipino language as the national language is nothing but expanded Tagalog to include words from the other dialects. The Philippines, an archipelago, has eight major dialects nationwide out of the 80 or so dialects, some of which are gettng extant, or dying.
The Reuters dispatch was a product of four months of investigative pursuits on the many facets and details of Duterte’s bloody but failed war on drugs. Authors Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall spent time collating details on the ill-fated drug war, interviewing families of EJK victims and even police operatives involved in various raids and operations against the EJK targets. They went into the every known nook and cranny of the drug war, seeing for themselves the police operations. In several instances, they contributed modest sums of money to the families of the EJK victims in exchange for juicy details. The two authors won the coveted Pulitzer Award for their role in the investigative report on Duterte’s war on drugs.
According to the Reuters story, the police operatives, who barged into their house and shot dead her husband Erwin Polo and three others spoke in the Visayan dialect, could have come from that southern Philippine port city of Davao, where Rodrigo Duterte has hailed. The Visayan dialect is widely spoken in the southern Philippines. It was the dialect, which the police operatives kept on speaking because they knew in most likelihood that wife Katryn neither spoke nor understood it. Nonetheless, the police operations concluded swiftly in a matter of few minutes. The bodies of the victims were immediately collected, put into sacks and loaded in a police vehicle and brought to the hospital, where they were not admitted because they were already dead.
As the pair of enterprising journalists from Reuters found out, the police operatives came from a single police station. It said: “The officers belonged to what would become the deadliest police station in Quezon City Police District. Called Station 6, or Batasan Station, it is on a violent frontline in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Of the 12 police stations in Quezon City, which is part of Metro Manila, Station 6 was by far the most lethal. Its officers killed 108 people in anti-drug operations from July 2016 through June 2017, the campaign’s first year, accounting for 39 percent of the city’s body count, according to Quezon City Police District crime reports reviewed and analyzed by Reuters.”
‘DAVAO BOYS.’ It was no coincidence that almost all of the EJKs that occured in the Payatas district “were carried out by Station 6’s anti-drug unit” the report said. It was also no coincidence that the police officers, who formed the core of that unit hailed from or near Davao City. The Reuters dispatch said the police officers called themselves the “Davao Boys” - and they spoke in the region’s language, which is Visayan. The report said ten of the police operatives were Davao Boys. Their station commander, Maj. Lito Patay (now a colonel) took command of Station 6 in July 2016,or shortly after the start of Duterte’s drug war. According to the Reuters story, Patay is also from Davao, where he once led a paramilitary police unit.
Quoting Patay, the report said the men under him previously served under him in Davao, but declined to identify them. It would appear that they were specifically transferred from Davao City to Quezon City presumably to boost the police ranks of murderers, who would not hesitate to pull the trigger. Eight of the Davao Boys’ names appear on a police transfer order, which a member unabashedly posted on his Facebook account. Their names matched the Quezon City crime reports reviewed by Reuters, it said. “The reports showed that this small group of men was involved in more than half of Station 6’s drug-related killings, 62 out of 108 deaths, including the three operations with the highest body count,” it said.
It said: “Reuters spent four months retracing the Davao Boys’ deadly path through Quezon City, speaking to scores of police officers and bereaved families and analyzing thousands of police crime reports covering the first year of the drug war. These reports don’t specify which officers pulled the trigger but usually name officers, who took part in an operation. After arriving in Quezon City, the Davao Boys were quickly involved in dozens of kills in what police described as legitimate drug busts, but relatives, human rights monitors and lawyers say were often executions.”
Hence, the deployment of police operatives from Davao City into the police force based in Metro Manila for inclusion in the bloody war on drugs was clear. The usual excuse was that the Davao Boys were beyond corruption unlike the Metro Manila police officers, who, it was said, easily succumb to corrupt practices. Moreover, the Davao Boys did not hesitate to pull the trigger. The deployment of Davao Boys is only a facet of the dynamics in the PNP. It was not known if the unidentified members of the masked motorcycle-rising of vigilante forces also came from Davao City. This has always been an unsettled issue in the anti-drug war.
Barely a week after the August 15, 2016 Payatas Massacre, another mass killing, or massacre, occurred in the same depressed urban community that has been widely reputed to be the final destination of the collected garbage in Metro Manila. On the afternoon of August 21, 2016, police operatives killed in broad daylight four of five persons, whom they suspected of being drug users or pushers. They claimed the police operations took place as part of the Oplan Tokhang, the bigger half of the Project Double Barrel. Oplan Tokhang dealt mostly with drug users and pushers, mostly the poor and downtrodden, on the barangay level. The other half, Oplan High Value Target, was supposed to deal with the drug lords in the higher strata of society. Memorandum Circular 1, issued on July 1, 2016, mandates the PNP to pursue Project Double Barrel (See Chapter 1 for details).
A team of police officers composed of Senior Inspector Emil Garcia, SPO3 Allan Formilleza, PO1 James Aggarao, and PO1 Melchor Navisaga raided a shanty that housed a billiard table for pool enthusiasts in the community. They found five garbage collectors, Efren Morillo, Marcelo Daa Jr, Raffy Gabo, Jessie Cule, and Anthony Comendo, playing pool and resting in the shanty hall owned by Daa. They were leisurely passing the time to resume their night work as garbage collectors. According to the witnesses, the four police officers barged into the shanty’s yard and aimed their guns at the victims. Daa, Cule, and Morillo raised their hands in surrender, they said. The police officers “ransacked” the shanty and returned to the yard bearing a silver foil and a lighter. They accused the victims of using drugs. The victims denied the accusation, but the cops dragged them to the back of the house.
“The armed men handcuffed Daa and Morillo. They pulled the electric wire from the ceiling of the hut. They used it to tie Cule’s hands. They fetched Gabo and Comendo who were at the hammock at the back of the house and also tied their hands with electric wire. Then they made Daa, Morillo, Cule, Gabo, and Comendo sit side by side on a bench. The armed men kept on accusing the five captives of being involved in illegal drugs, according to witnesses in a petition, which the victims’ families filed on January 26, 2017 before the Supreme Court to seek the privilege of the writ of amparo.
The witnesses in the petition recounted how the police officers killed the victims: “The armed man made Daa sit on a wooden chair and Morillo on the armrest. Then, without warning, he pointed his firearm at Morillo and shot him on the chest. Morillo fell to the ground bleeding, but he did not lose consciousness. Next, the armed man shot Daa, who fell to the ground beside Morillo. Daa was shot a second time on the head as he lay on the ground. He died.”
PLAYED DEAD. According to Morillo, he played dead despite the chest wound, which was superficial and not fatal. When he was out of the suspects’ sight, he crawled through a hole in the wall, slid down a ravine, trekked up a hill, and sought help when he reached the highway. He was brought to a small clinic for first aid treatment in the adjacent town of Montalban in the Rizal province, but he was returned to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) upon the Montalban police’s insistence. Morillo said QCPD cops only brought him to the East Avenue Medical Center past midnight. He was shot at 3 pm.
Garcia told GMA News that the victims were armed and shot them first. He added that the men were “notorious drug users and robbers.” Garcia also repeated the oft-repeated ’nanlaban” line, alleging that they were killed because “they fought back.” The petitioners claimed that the police report contradicted the narrative they gave to media. When police learned that one of the five men survived what was said to be an execution, they took efforts to pursue and locate him, but failed. They later filed charges of direct assault against Morillo.
Marilyn Malimban, Cule’s live-in partner and a petitioner in the case, attested to what happened to the three other victims, Gabo, Cule, and Comendo, as recounted to her by a 14-year-old witness named “Emar,”who witnessed the killings. “They made the three kneel on the ground at the back of the house and shot them to death. Jessie Cule was the last of the three to be killed. He begged to be spared, hugging the legs of one of the armed men and sobbing. As he would not let go of his hold, the man shot him on the nape,” the petition said.
JUDICIAL AFFIDAVIT. This author met Marilyn Malimban, who corroborated her earlier statements to mass media and gave us a copy of her judicial affidavit, which she submitted to the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 133 to defend Morillo from charges of direct assault. The judicial affidavit contains details which were not earlier divulged to the public. She claimed to have experienced and witnessed the threats, surveillance, and stalking, which police conducted after the incident to instill fear in the victims’ families.
She joined Morillo and family, and the families of Comendo, Cule, Daa,and Gabo in filing a case seeking to obtain the privilege of the writ of amparo against the police-complainants and high government officials. The petition was later granted by the court and made it permanent. She issued the judicial affidavit ostensibly to clear the names of the four EJK victims and Morillo.
She joined Morillo, Maria Belen Daa, and Lydia Gabo in filing criminal and administrative complaints at the Office of the Ombudsman. She observed that the facts, documents, statements, and circumstantial evidence showed Morillo did not commit the crime charged in the case and that police complainants committed frustrated murder against Morillo and multiple murder against Comendo, Cule, Daa, and Gabo.
Her judicial affidavit contained several points that were difficult to believe but had happened because police was responsible for them. For instance, despite being the common-law partner of one of the victim Jessie Cule, police prevented Malimban from entering the crime scene. Police did not give any reason for barring her to enter the place, where the bodies laid sprawling on the ground, she claimed. The shooting incident happened at around 2 pm, but police operatives belonging to SOCO (Scene of the Crime Department) put the four bodies in bags six hours later at around 8 pm and took them to a funeral parlor, which Malimban alleged to be owned by an unidentified police officer.
Despite their protest to claim the bodies because they have, as families, the customary right to bury them, police disagreed and insisted to send them to the favored funeral parlor, she said. Neither police gave the clothes they wore on that day, she said. The funeral parlor, according to Malimban, charged them what they considered an exorbitant rate of p47,000 for each body, when the going rate in other funeral parlors was said to be half of that amount. Malimban’s funeral obligations reached P63,00 because she claimed to have sent Cule’s body to the province to enable his father to see his remains for the last time.
‘RUBOUT.’ What happened, Malimban said in her judicial affidavit, was not a shootout between police and the victims. It was a “rubout,” or “execution.” She said: “Doon ko po sinabi iyong nararamdaman ko na di dapat ganoon iyong proseso ng pagpatay nila. Dapat hinuli, pinosasan, dinala sa pulis station at doon nila inin-interview. Kung may pagkakamali, ikulong nila . Hindi Oplan Tokhang ang ginawa nila … Rubout.” (I’ve said what I felt that the process they did was wrong. They should have arrested them, handcuffed, brought to the police station and interviewed. If they made mistakes, they should be jailed. What they did was not Oplan Tokhang, but a rubout.)
Malimban cited in her judicial affidavit what Emar’s narrated to her on the manner police killed Cule: ”Te, nakita ko kung paano pinatay si Kuya Jess. Siya ang huling binaril Yumakap siya sa pulis. Lumuhod sa pulis. Nagmamakaawa sa pulis. Sabi niya ‘Ser kung may pagkakamali man ako bigyan po ninyo ako ng pagkakataong magbago.’ Ayun, nagalit ata si Formilleza sa kanya – iyong pulis na niyakap ni Jess. Itinutok daw ang baril sa ano … sa may batok. Dito.” (Ate, I saw how they killed Kuya Jess. He was the last to be shot. He hugged the police officer. He was begging the police officer to spare his life. He said: ‘Sir, if I made mistakes, give me another chance to change.’ Formilleza got angry to him, the police whom he hugged. He placed the gun nuzzle on his nape. Here.)
“Sabi pa sa akin noong bata na dahil sa galit noong pulis na hindi binibitiwan ni Jess iyong kamay niya sa beywang noong pulis, binaril niya ng ilang beses sa batok Kaya siguro, iyon ang ikinamatay niya. Doon bumaba ang kamay ni Jess. Nakasubsob siya na nakaluhod na iyong kamay niya nakahawak pa rin magkabilaan iyong daliri.” (The kid told me that because of the police officer’s anger because Jess held on his hands on his waist, the police officer shot him several times on the nape. That was why he died. That was how Jess’s went down. He was about to lie down in a kneeling position with his hands on the police officer’s waist.)
Re question on what other people told her:
“Opo. Ang kuwento ng mga taong nakapaligid sa bahay, sinasabi daw ng pulis na gumagamit daw ng drugs iyong mga pinatay. Sabi nila na bago dinala ang mga pulis sa likod iyong mga pinatay, naghalughog pa sila ng mga gamit ni Daa pero wala naman silang nakitang drugs. Iyong pulis pa ang nanguha ng mga gamit. Iyong mga pera ng asawa ni Daa. Iyong mga kung ano-anong nakita nila sa katawan ni Daa. Ibinalot pa nila sa bag. Ang mga pinaglagyan pa nila kamo, iyong bag ng bata na binuhos nila, iyong laman at doon pa nila pinagsisilid. Ang masaklap pa doon, pinagsabihan pa ng pulis ang asawa ni Daa na, ‘adik naman iyong asawa mo. Ako na lang ang i-boyfriend mo.’ Sabi ng isang pulis sa asawa ni Daa.Eh ngayon, siyempre iyong asawa ni Daa, natakot. Tapos, may nakita pa silang may hawak ng itak. Tinatakot nila ang asawa ni Daa. Eh siyempre, natakot ang asawa ni Daa, umalis na lang. Tapos, doon dinala sa likod iyong lima: sina Raffy, Jessie, Anthony, Marcelo, at si Efren Morillo.” (Yes. The story of the people, who were around the house, is that before the police officers brought the victims, they searched into the things owned by Daa but they did not find any drugs. Police took his things, including the money of Daa’s wife and those they found in his body. They wrapped and put them in bag. The pitiful thing was that a police officer told Daa’s wife ‘your husband is an addict. It’s me who should be your boyfriend.’ Yes, Daa’s wife got afraid. Then, they saw somebody was holding a bolo. They were threatening Daa’s wife. Then, they brought trhe five at the back: Raffy, Jessie, Anthony, Marcelo, and Efren Morillo.)
EMAR’S NARRATIVE. She believed in Emar’s narrative that Cule was kneeling and urging to spare his life because she claimed she saw Cule’s cadaver body with bended knees to indicate he was in a kneeling position when killed. He did not fight back, Malimban said. Her judicial affidavit said: “Hindi talaga nanlaban. Kung nanlaban sila, iyong mga nandoon sa harap ng bahay, dapat magtatakbuhan iyon kasi matatamaan sila ng mga baril. Eh wala eh. Doon mo palang makikita na hindi sila nanlaban. Kaya ako nandito eh. Na malinis ang pangalan nila. Na hindi sila nanlaban. Na sinadyang pinatay sila. At saka iisa lang naman ang taong bumaril sa kanila, si Allan Formilleza.” (They did not fight back. If they fought back, the people who were in front of the house would have ran away for fear of stray bullets hitting them. It did not happen though. On that basis, they did not fight back. I am here to clear their names. That they did not fight back. That they were deliberately killed. Only one police officer shot them and that was Allan Formilleza.)
Malimban said that witnesses saw that Formilleza’s gun was the only one smoking when he came out from the back of the house. It indicated that his gun was the only one used to kill the four victims. His two colleagues were taking video of the murder, Malimban said, quoting witnesses. She said that during the wake, unidentified persons were roaming around the area. Unidentified vehicles, presumably private vehicles, were also roaming there. This prompted them to seek from the Supreme Court the privilege of the writ of amparo. The High Court remanded their petition to the Court of Appeals, of which its 14th Division, gave and made permanent the privilege of the writ of amparo.
The writ of amparo is a legal remedy to protect an individual’s constitutional rights and liberties. The petitioners sought the issuance of the writ of amparo to protect the survivor and the victims’ kin from alleged harassment and threats to life. The petitioners requested the Supreme Court to issue a five-kilometer restraining order against local cops, particularly those from QCPD Station 6. It also sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Oplan Tokhang in Area B, Barangay Payatas, and the rest of the jurisdiction of QCPD Station 6.
***
THE MURDER OF FATHER AND SON
Just as pregnant wife Harra Kazuo, 26, was about to sleep on the evening of July 6, 2016, three uniformed police officers suddenly barged in their humble house along Ignacio Street in Pasay City. “Where are the drugs?” they persistently kept on asking Jaypee Bertes, Kazuo’s horrified common law husband, who was sleeping in an adjacent room. “I have no drugs, sir” JP repeatedly kept on saying. But the police officers, who entered their house without the courtesy of knocking on their door and without presenting any arrest warrant, persisted to look for the illegal drugs, which, police claimed, were being peddled by Jaypee.
The police officers insisted on a single line of argument for their forcible entry the Bertes’s house: Jaypee was involved in drug dealing and that he was selling drugs to users in the community. They said he was being arrested because he was once caught gambling in the street before and drugs were recovered from him upon frisking. His father, Renato Bertes, arrived and demanded a copy of any arrest warrant issued against his son. The police officers arrogantly said they did not have any search or arrest warrant and that his son could be killed outright at their house. They vented their ire on Renato for his insistence on any issued warrant. They took him and Jaypee for questioning at the Station Against Illegal Drugs (SAID), or Station 4 in Pasay City.
Harra Kazuo could not do anything to stop their arrest. She wanted to accompany them, but her husband prevented her. Minutes later, she took a tricycle ride and went by herself to the SAID station, where the Bartes father and son were brought. In her testimony in the August 22, 2016 public hearing in the Senate, Kazuo answered the questions raised by then Senator Leila de Lima and described the eerie scene where the father and son were being beaten by police amid throngs of people surrounding the police station. She said she and the people could hear the moans of pain and anguish of the two souls, who were undergoing severe beatings by the police.
She could not stand the moans of pain and went home to attend to their two-year old daughter. But she returned at about 3 am only to find the basement of the station dark and unlighted. Minutes later, she was told that the father and son were killed after they tried to grab the gun of a police officer. They were subsequently killed and the “nanlaban” narrative was used against them. Police said Jaypee tried to grab a policeman's gun with Renato’s help. On July 7, 2016, police issued an incident report, saying “it was the two of them who attacked and grabbed the gun.” The sworn statements of two police said it was Renato, who grabbed the gun, in what appeared to be a conflicting account.
CRIME SCENE. The death of father and son Renato and Jaypee Bertes turned a Pasay City police station into a crime scene with blood splattered on the floor. It was one of the initial cases of the "nanlaban" narrative under Duterte’s bloody but failed war on drugs. Jaypee Bertes left a pregnant wife and a two year-old girl. Harra Kazuo filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). It conducted an investigation and gave the following key points: the Berteses were illegally arrested because they were inside their house; illegal gambling never happened; they were tortured; it was not possible for them to attack and grab gun of the police officers given their weakened condition arising from torture; and they died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Just some additional key points to their story: Both men were severely bruised. Hours later, they were shot dead. During the arrest or raid, the cops also searched the two year-old (at that time) daughter of Harra, claiming it might be possible that drugs were hidden inside her diaper. But to no avail. There were no drugs found at that night. The diaper search was immediately reported on media. The police version was they chanced upon the Berteses gambling in the neighborhood and took the pair to the police station after drugs were found in their possession. While in detention, father and son tried to get a police officer’s gun and they were shot as a result. Police did not mention they were taken from their house.
Forensic evidence shows otherwise, as autopsy results showed Jaypee had a broken arm as a result of the beatings. This made the police version doubtful, at the least. The detainees were beaten so badly that they could not have done what the police claimed. Jaypee was described by the wife as a former small-time drug runner, who stopped using drugs and that he was due to "surrender." He had himself to be listed by the end of that week.
Now, Harra Kazuo supported herself and her children by doing odd jobs like waitressing. She has metamorphosed into another advocate by speaking in hearings and attending the wakes of other EJK victims to encourage other families to strive for justice as a means to cope with their grief. There is an arrest warrant against the two cops allegedly involved in the murder of the Berteses They were PO2 Alipio Balo Jr. PO1 Michael Tomas. But they have remained free, as neither has been arrested. They were seen visible in the community. A third police officer named Santos was allegedly involved, but he was not named in the warant. Police has yet to arrest the two police officers.
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A CASE OF ‘PALIT-ULO’
Hideyoshi Kawata, a 17-year old Japanese Filipino and his girlfriend Mishel Ordillos, a minor, who was pregnant with their first child, were visiting Mitos Xeta Kawata, his Filipino mother, in her house in Bagong Barrio, a depressed community in South Caloocan City on the balmy night of January 8, 2017. Hideyoshi, then a Grade 11 student in a private school, was the son of a Japanese national and a Filipino mother, but was forced by circumstances to live here when his father left his mother after an acrimonious fight. Since it was nighttime, Hideyoshi’s mother prevailed upon them to sleep over in her house.
It also the night that police operatives in Caloocan City barged into the house looking for the alleged boyfriend of Hideyoshi’s mother. The boyfriend was described to be one of the notorious drug pushers in the Caloocan City area. Police did not find the alleged boyfriend, who escaped shortly after Hideyoshi and girlfriend had arrived in her house. Police asked Mitos about his whereabouts but she refused to say anything. Furious on her refusal, police operatives shot dead Hideyoshi in what appeared to be part of the “palit ulo” scheme. He was killed despite the presence of Mishel, who personally saw the cold blooded murder. Palit-ulo (Change heads, literally) is the scheme, where one person is supposed to replace the other person.
The police version raised the “nanlaban” narrative, where Hideyoshi fought against the arresting police operatives. They used the unbelievable but ludicrous explanation that Hideyoshi had an Uzi gun he somehow kept “hidden inside his pajamas.” Mitos Kawata and Mishel Ordillo submitted a complaint before the CHR and name the involved police officers as follows: Police Senior Inspector Waldo Bontogon; SPO4 Bernardo Bautista; PO3 Adrian Magbalot; PO3 Carlo Hernandez; PO3 Harold Natividad; and PO3 Pepito Agabin. Also included were: PO3 Cesar Tolentino; PO2 Fernando Usita; PO1 Jollie Tacanay; PO1 Michael Borja; PO1 Muktar Mohammad; PO1 Zosimo Cortez; and Mary Rosie Orasa.
Mishel gave birth to a son and christened Hyree. The child was said to be suffering from a congenital heart disease. Hideyoshi’s mother is now in hiding in an unnamed town the central Philippine island of Panay. She has brought her grandson there. Not much was heard from her except her frequent moans of funds for the milk of her grandson. Meanwhile, the complaint before the CHR has been languishing there and it was yet to be decided.
***
HUSBAND, WIFE WERE PUSHERS
Days after then PNP chief Gen. Ronald Bato signed Memorandum Circular No. 1, or “Operation Double Barrel,” which has two parts: “Oplan Tokhang” for the poor drug users, pushers, and traders; and “Oplan High Value Targets” for the richer ones, the police officers in Antipolo City killed Joselito Gonzales in a purported drug buy bust operations there. Police spared his wife Christina, whom police described to have been involved too in drug deals.
The case of drug dealing husband Joselito and wife Christine was a little different from the usual cases of EJKs, which the PNP had launched as part of the state-sponsored war on drugs. According to accounts, Joselito and Christine were enticed by police officers of Antipolo City to sell illegal drugs for a reason. They were part of a network of what Duterte described as “ninja cops,” or police officers, who are allegedly involved in drug deals. Drugs that were pushed and sold to users came from the unscrupulous police officers in Antipolo City. They sold those illegal drugs. If they refused, they were told that they would either get killed or entrapped.
Joselito Gonzales was described to have been a minor runner and pusher for some Antipolo PNP elements. He was killed on July 6, 2016 allegedly to to tie-up “some loose ends” so that the involved police officers, or “ninja cops” would not be in any way be identified and punished by the PNP leadership. Why his wife was spared is a matter of conjecture. All that was said were sentences that started with the word “perhaps.” Nothing was conclusive though.
Joselito did what could be regarded as odd jobs like driving for the PNP personnel in Antipolo City. These jobs included drug trade, but he was low in the totem pole, as he was a runner or small pusher. The fact was that his entire supply came from the police officers. They usually pilfer a portion of the seized drugs for recycling and reselling in the open market. Duterte called it the “ninja cop phenomenon.” Dela Rosa’s MC 1, or Operation Double Barrel, has included provisions against this phenomenon and imposes stiff punishment for ninja cops. They range from exclusion from the police service to imprisonment.
It was surmised that certain police elements were apprehensive that Joselito, a user himself, would squeal on them, necessitating to silence him to protect themselves. He was asked to leave his house by a police informant he knew and told to assist a certain police officer, who needed assistance in his impending house transfer. Joselito disappeared without rhyme or reason and he was found dead two days later, allegedly shooting it out with the PNP during a drug buy-bust operations. Given the circumstances of his death, it could be assumed that Joselito Gonzales was summarily executed, a victim of extrajudicial killing (EJK).
Christina Gonzales first brought the issue to the CHR, who assisted her to document her husband’s death. Assisted by a group of lawyers, who provided pro bono services to the families of EJK victims, Christina took it to the Supreme Court to ask for a Writ of Amparo for her. She won after the High Court affirmed that Joselito’s death was a case of an extrajudicial killing. He was summarily executed as indicated by a gunshot wounds on his back and signs of torture. The SC then issued a protection order to Christina, represented then by lawyer Ricardo Fernandez of the Fernandez Olivas Law Office, a protection order.
The SC has remanded her case to the Court of Appeals (CA). The CA has come out with a verdict with finality sometime in April, 2019 , but Christina has yet to hear from the PNP any information about what they had done about the recommendations of the CA. Lately, Christina, who is under the state-sponsored Witness Protection Program (WPP) was subject to a reported harassment, when certain police officers went to her house to intimidate her.
***
FAKE CAUSES OF DEATH
The case of Lenin Baylon, a minor, was different. He was killed in police operations on drugs, but his death was not included in the official statistics. Reason: His death certificate said Lenin Baylon died of bronchopneumonia and not of a stray bullet that came from a gun of one of the police officers in a police operations in their community. It was the night of December 2, 2016, when police operatives conducted an operations in a depressed community in Caloocan City. Lenin, 9, was playing computer games in a shop, when he and other computer game enthusiasts heard a commotion. They got curious and they went out of the shop.13
At that time, the Duterte administration was in the middle of its bloody but failed war on drugs. A motorcycle riding-in-tandem, together with persons who were described as part of a vigilante team, shot dead two women, who were described as “drug users.” But a stray bullet struck Lenin. He was immediately brought to a hospital, but he died after three days. His father, Reynaldo Baylon, said witnesses failed to identify the people involved in the police operations, a situation that had made it difficult for the Baylon family to pursue immediately a legal course of action against the culprits.
The story did not end in his son’s death. It took several twists, leading to complications. The father said certain police officers, who were not identified, insisted that he signed a waiver to say that his son died of bronchopneumonia. He protested but he could not do anything, as the police officers prevailed upon him. The official death certificate said bronchopneumonia was the cause of his son’s death. Lenin Baylon was the youngest of his 13 children. At that time, no autopsy on his son’s body took place.
OFFICIAL CHANGE. Rodrigo did not relish the idea of being coerced to enter a fake cause of his son’s death. He went to the Regional Trial Court of Caloocan City, asking for a change in the official reason for his son’s demise.The RTC, in a decision, rejected his claim. The RTC said no “expert witness” had come to say that Lenin died of a gunshot wound. The RTC did not accept the Medico-Legal Certificate although it cited the shooting incident but said that since no autopsy on Lenin’ body took place, it could not grant the change of cause.
This development prompted Rodrigo to seek the assistance of Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS), a civil society organization of lawyers specializing in human rights issues. Rodrigo, with the help of IDEALS lawyers, sought a motion for reconsideration from the RTC, but, just like what had happened before, it did not recognize the additional documents submitted by the Baylon family and rejected the MR. The Baylons went up to the Court of Appeals (CA). This time, the CA, after six years, agreed to change Lenin’s death certificate to “death by gunshot wound.”
On November 15, 2022, the three-man 7th Division ng CA: “The Baylon family did not need a medico-legal expert’s testimony to correct Lenin’s death certificate... Matter of factly, we find that the appellant was able to prove with preponderance of evidence that indeed, Lenin died due to a gunshot wound (on his right chest near his armpit) even in the absence of a post mortem examination.” CA Associate Justice Roberto Quiroz wrote the decision and Associate Justices Ramon Bato Jr at Germano Legaspi concurred.
Apparently, Lenin Baylon’s case was only the tip of the iceberg. According to IDEALs lawyers, an undetermined number of victims of EJKs have listed what appeared to be fake causes for their deaths. This is apparently to hide the actual score of deaths under the bloody but failed war on drugs , they claimed. By falsifying the cause of death of the EJK victims, the architects of the bloody but failed war on drugs expected a lower count.
The case of Thelmo Blas was another instance of fake cause of death, according to Dr. Raquel Fortun, a forensic pathologist. His death certificate said he died of pneumonia. But Fortun found a hole in the skull of Blas, when she did a forensic examination of his body. Fortun said she met Aurora in September, 2022, as she witnessed the exhumation of her husband’s remains. Reuters, the British-owned news agency, has come out with an investigative report in 2022 about the reported proliferation of death certificates of victims of EJKs with fake causes of death. Reuters said:
“When Rodrigo Duterte began campaigning for president in 2016 on a centerpiece program to launch a brutal war on drugs that centered in the murder of people involved in drug use and trade, Aurora Blas feared for her husband’s safety because Duterte was bent on an anti-drug war that erased the distinction between users and pushers. For Duterte, they were one and the same. Aurora said she joined a church group and prayed for Duterte not to win, but it was a prayer that brought the opposite. Husband Thelmo was a jeepney driver. They needed the money from his long working hours. Thelmo resorted to the use of shabu (methamphetamine) to stay awake, Aurora said. Her husband was never addicted; he was never violent; and there was food on the table. Thelmo supported his family quietly.”
PROVEN SYSTEM. Thelmo told Aurora not to worry. In his way of reassuring her, Thelmo told her that he knew of what he described a proven system to dodge drug tests, escape the prying probers’ eyes on the drug issue, and come out clean. He claimed that by refraining from taking drugs and drinking more water for two weeks before a scheduled drug test to get a driving license, he would come out clean and get his license. It was proven in his case, he told her. He wore a bracelet with Duterte’s name on it and elected Duterte, who was nicknamed “The Punisher,” in the 2016 presidential elections. A month after Duterte was sworn in, Thelmo disappeared. Aurora searched three police stations in Caloocan City but to no avail. She went to funeral parlors and on the fourth parlor, she saw Thelmo’s lifeless body.14
The police version said police officers responded to reports of gunfire at around 3 a.m. on Aug. 1, 2016. They found Thelmo’s body dumped by the side of the road, his face wrapped in masking tape. He was found with three sachets of suspected shabu and a placard in Filipino that read: “I am a pusher, do not copy me.” According to the Reuters account, police reported that Aurora told them on Aug. 2 that Thelmo was “involved in illegal drug activities,” and that she had refused an autopsy and an investigation into his death.
***
PROFOUND EXAMINATION
THE Reuters investigative report gave a profound and incisive examination of the phenomenon where the families of victims of extrajudicial killings received death certificates that did not say the EJK victims were victims of violence inflicted on them by state police forces and unnamed vigilante groups. Reuters said: “The official death certificates of at least 15 drug war victims did not reflect the violent manner in which police and family members said they died. Those death certificates said the deceased had succumbed to natural causes such as pneumonia or hypertension instead of saying they were shot.”
The investigative report prepared and authored by a trio of print journalists composed of Eloisa Lopez, Karen Lema, and Clare Baldwin cited the unpublished findings of Medical Action (MAG), a Manila-based group of medical professionals, which took a look on the death certificates of 107 cases, whose families told the group their relatives died of injuries, mostly gunshots. Majority of those death certificates issued during the height of the bloody but failed war on drugs between July 2016 and June 2019 either cited natural causes or used “vague terminology” in citing the causes of death, according to Reuters, citing the MAG’s audit and findings. In some instances, whoever prepared the death certificate had left it blank, it said.
According to the Reuters report, the death certificate should have accurate details to serve as a barometer of the actual death toll of the anti-drug war. Moreover, they could serve as bases for taking legal actions against its perpetrators, it said. But Reuters said it could establish “whether discrepancies in the death certificates it reviewed were intentional, the result of mistakes by the health officials who completed them, or the byproduct of shortcomings in the nation’s death reporting system.” It acknowledged what it considered “widespread problems with the country’s death investigations and record keeping.” These issues were around ever before Duterte came into power in 2016.
Sophia San Luis, a lawyer whom Reuters said studied the country’s process of investigating and registering deaths, cited what she said “long-standing vulnerabilities and poor standards.” No mandatory training for health officials tasked to certify deaths has been established, said, while doctors, who sign death certificates, are not required to examine the bodies, even for patients they don’t know and have never treated. Instead, physicians can turn to relatives of the deceased to provide a cause of death, a practice known as “verbal autopsy,” according to guidelines by the country’s Department of Health. In brief, the system could be regarded as loose. The rules are not definite and well established.
GRIEVING RELATIVES. The Reuters account said: “Some funeral homes have grieving relatives sign in-house waivers attesting that their loved ones died of natural causes. Three people familiar with the system described it variously as a way to save poor families the extra expenses associated with an autopsy, and a way for funeral homes to shield themselves from potential complaints or legal troubles in the event relatives later end up challenging the cause of death listed on the official death certificate.”
“The system is just so weak,” conceded San Luis, who is the executive director of ImagineLaw, a public interest law practice group. ImagineLaw documented deficiencies on how unnatural deaths were handled here in a 2020 report commissioned by the Department of Health. Separately, the law firm in a 2017 report found problems with how the country collects and records vital records such as death certificates.
“You have doctors staking their reputations, names, licenses, falsifying death certificates.” This was the stand of Dr. Raquel Fortun, forensic pathologist at the University of the Philippines Manila, as she publicly assailed the procedures for investigating deaths. She did not mention names of those health workers. The forensic pathologist said she has found gunshot wounds, fractures - even bullets in the nearly four dozen sets of remains she has examined so far. Trauma was not reflected in the death certificates, although she found it common in the cases she handled. At a press conference in April, 2022, she criticized medical doctors, who mentioned and signed death certificates that mentioned natural causes. She did not say if these wrong entries in the death certificates were attempts by authorities to cover up war drug judgments.
FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST. Dr. Raquel Barros del Rosario-Fortun is the doctor, who is regarded the first forensic pathologist in the Philippines. A features article about her in a UP publication said she took up primary and secondary education at the University of the Philippines Integrated School. She completed a psychology degree to guarantee employment, but changed her mind to take up a medical course three years later, it said. She was not accepted at UP, prompting her to go to the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay (UERM) College of Medicine, graduating in 1987 and completing post-internship in 1988. She began residence training in anatomic and clinical pathology in 1989 at UPCM, where she was also made instructor, the article said.15
According to the article, Fortun took and passed the law aptitude exam of the UP College of Law (UP Law) twice, in 1989 and 1993. UPCM just advised against the pursuit in 1989 because it was her first year of residence. “Passing twice, I thought I might have an aptitude for law after all,” the article said quoting her. Recounting her law experience, she said: “I quit! After 10 days, maybe 2 weeks, I just quit! This is so embarrassing, but that’s what happened. Law wasn’t for me.” She comes from a clan of lawyers. It said she found the discipline of law “too abstract” for her, unlike medicine, which is “concrete and tangible.” The patient either dies or gets cured, so to speak.
The features article said that she learned about forensic pathology from one of her seniors at the Department. It quoted her: “I realized it was probably what I was looking for: the field of medicine, particularly pathology, applied to law. The tangible applied to the abstract.” She went in 1994 to Seattle, the main city in the state of Washington in the northwestern part of the United States to train at the King County Medical Examiner’s (ME) Office. “My first day there, I fell in love with forensic pathology. That was it. I knew it was the field I was meant to be in.” She had the stomach for it, too —dead bodies, whether fresh or decomposing, with maggots or reduced to skeletal remains, the article said.
But it came at great sacrifices and heartaches. Raquel vividly remembered the day she left, the article said. It was a Sunday. She and her husband Vincent, an obstetrician-gynecologist, left their three-year-old daughter Lisa playing at her paternal grandmother’s place. Raquel cried so hard the night before that she almost didn’t want to leave. “It was very difficult.”
HOMESICK. When she wasn’t examining bodies and collecting evidence at the ME’s office, Raquel would feel terribly homesick. She racked up a massive bill on overseas calls in her first month and was forced to cut down—ten minutes on Saturdays, it said. She thought things would be easier when she returned. “It was like my daughter didn’t know who I was. That hurt.” Raquel feared her one-year absence may have caused trauma on Lisa. “What have I done?” she asked herself many times, according to the article.
Professionally, she was full of enthusiasm of what she had learned. “But there was no solid practice for a forensic pathologist here. I’ve seen the ideal and I wanted us to be at par with the international standards.” That desire for improvement, however, was not welcomed by some in the medical field and government, it said. “We didn’t have a death investigation system here that was fully state-funded and independent from law enforcement. We didn’t have medical examiners or coroners, and medical investigators. We still don’t. Have I cried over this? Yes, out of sheer frustration at how death investigations were being done.”
Yes, forensic pathology was an underdeveloped discipline in the Philippines. Although we need it, it has not been given ample attention by medical and political authorities here. Google said: “The forensic pathologist is a subspecialist in pathology, whose area of special competence is the examination of persons, who die suddenly, unexpectedly or violently. The forensic pathologist is an expert in determining cause and manner of death. A post-mortem examination is performed by a medical examiner or forensic pathologist, usually during the investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some jurisdictions.
LUCRATIVE. Forensic pathology could be lucrative field if Fortun chose to work abroad. But she stayed to work here mainly because she was happier to be working here. The article said she tried to work elsewhere, but chose to stay at UP: “But I wasn’t happy. I realized it wasn’t about the money. UP has an environment that’s hard to find elsewhere. I am free to speak my mind. The students are very intelligent. The interaction with my colleagues is great.”
Raquel was consulted on several cases, some of which were high profile and controversial: the 1995 Ozone Disco fire, the Dacer-Corbito case, the Asian Spirit tragedy, the Maguindanao massacre, and the death of Ted Failon’s wife, Trina Etong. Her reputation as a forensic expert grew, but it has a trade-off. She earned enemies, according to the article. She said: “Evidence doesn’t take sides. It is what it is. If you don’t like what it tells you, that’s not my fault. I just call it as I see it. That’s how the science works.”
According to the article, Fortun clarified that she never claimed to be an all-around forensic expert. It said: “Forensics involves a lot of disciplines. Mine is forensic pathology. Although my training has exposed me to other forensic aspects of death investigation, I always defer to experts in other forensic fields. I know my limitations.”
Lately, she was asked about the death of National Democratic Front peace consultant Randall Echanis, and the murder of radio journalist Percy Lapid. "I chose to specialize in a field which is underdeveloped and misunderstood in this country. It has been quite a challenge battling ignorance," she said.16
***
OTHER EJKS
THE list of EJKs seems endless, as numerous incidents went unreported for a variety of reasons. The most plausible reason is that traditional media is basically limited in its resources and capability to cover as many incidents as possible. Newspapers and magazines, both print and online, have limited trained manpower. They can only cover a slice of reality – or what was really taking place. As a flurry of EJKs had cascaded, mass media, including social media, had found itself in a very peculiar situation.
The situation had evolved into a weird one, where no matter how mass media bit those EJK incidents, it could only chew so much. Mass media could never get the entire national situation, but only a slice of it. Mass media had fallen a victim of its weakness as an institution deeply committed to report what was true. It could not. There was no way mass media could cope with daily incidents reaching to a situation, where its resources were spread too thinly.
The case of Winifredo “Dado” Nadres was worthwhile to mention. On May 21, 2017, or almost a year after Duterte was sworn into the presidency, a group of eight police officers, all in civvies, dragged Dado, 48, out of their house in North Caloocan City and, in front of his brother Alfredo, they shot him dead. Just like in any other cases of EJKs, police claimed the frequent and worn out “nanlaban” (he fought back) narrative. It was never reported in any mass media outlet, and not even in social media. His family suffered in silence, as family memeber could turn virtually to nobody.
Nadres was a person with disability (PWD). He had psychological issues. He was a roaming “taong grasa,” or a dirty vagabond, when his family recovered and took him home. Police claimed he fought back with a .45 caliber handgun. His family could not believe the police claim because of his disability. But police stuck to their claim. It was also claimed that police tortured Alfredo. They took his cellphone and asked him to identify the persons, whose photographs were in the cell phone. They took his cellphone and his money.
MAGIC PASSWORD. The case of Gerry Doriman was quite different. Sometime in the second quarter of 2017, police officers belonging to the Police Station 6 at the Batasan had a purported anti-drug operations in the Payatas community. When police arrested Gerry and his companion named “Loloy,” Gerry’s mother came out of their house and shouted: “INC iyan. Huwag ninyong barilin.” Police spared Gerry and his companion, who also claimed that he was an INC member. The phrase Iglesia Ni Cristo seemed to have a magical power in police ears and it carried weight in the life or death situation of drug targets.
On August 18, 2016, police operatives raided a depressed community in Navotas City and killed Jomel Ejorcadas and two others. Police were looking for a target named Ramil Rarungal. When they could not find him, they assaulted a house and killed the three victims there. This incident has a police report and autopsy of the bodies of the victims. This was unreported in any media outlet. Their families chose to suffer instead.
Also in Navotas City, a case of “palit ulo” seemed to happen. Police raided the house of Victor Verutiao in a depressed community there, looking for his son, Victor Jr. When they could not find him, they vented their ire on the father, whom they shot dead on December 16, 2016. Like the other cases, this was unreported in mass media. They family did not raise a howl and it died a natural death. Nothing had happened.
The death of Mariano “Banjo” Cielo in a police operations in the Payatas community near where the “Payatas Massacre” was a case of overkill. Although unarmed, Banjo Cielo, who was with his girlfriend “Stephanie” at that time, was shot dead with 30 bullets piercing his body in a noontime operation. It was another unreported case and his family did not bother to bring the issue to any forum preferring to suffer in silence.
Riding-in-tandem vigilante agents shot dead Alex Guyala in a daring daytime operations in North Caloocan City on Sept. 3, 2017. Guyala was then head of a local association of tricycle drivers in the urban poor community. There were theories about his murder but it appeared it was a case of marital dispute with wife Rose Guyala. It was unreported and not much was known about any subsequent probe.
FIFTY TWO CASES. Meanwhile the Department of Justice (DoJ) has released a matrix of information on October 19, 2021 about the 52 cases of war on drug deaths, which it has been allegedly investigating. The DoJ's 20-page document included a summary table of the anti-narcotic deaths, with dates ranging from July 2016 to September 2020. Majority of these deaths were out into the category of buy-bust operations. It cited the usual narrative of “nanlaban” (he fought back) and police operatives said that “they acted in self-defense after suspects allegedly fired at them.”17
The DoJ report noted that many of the victims tested negative for gunpowder nitrates. One female drug war suspect, the report said, yielded "negative results from latent print," showing that she had not held or used a firearm against the police officers. In another case, the DoJ report said the paraffin test, which is usually taken to determine presence of gunpowder, was done on the firearm itself and not on the suspect, showing sloppy police works and lack of appropriate skills and training of police investigators. The probe also discovered that in several cases, there were no ballistics or paraffin test results, Scene of Crime Operations (SOCO) reports, or autopsy reports on record.
From her prison cell in Camp Crame, then Sen. Leila de Lima issued a statement, calling the DoJ matrix on 52 cases on drug war deaths as evasive theatrics, “too little, too late” and that the time has come for Duterte to face 'truth and consequences' She said the DoJ matrix on 52 cases of drug war deaths was a desperate move to deflect public attention from the ongoing process of the ICC involving Duterte. “It amounts to practically nothing,” she said.18 The matrix came out after the ICC announced on Sept. 15, 2021 that it would conduct formal investigation of the charges against Duterte. But this is another story.
***
‘SHIT HAPPENS’
Lydjay Acopio had big dreams for precocious three-year old Kateleen Myca Ulpina, her daughter by Renato Ulpina, a former soldier, construction subcontractor, and live-in partner. She could be a singer like her favorite Regine Velasquez, or a big movie star like Nadine Lustre. Or she could be a professional white collar worker like a teacher or accountant, quietly earning her keep to defray household expenses. Lydjay felt it was a legitimate aspiration for her to make. There was nothing wrong in the lawful ambition.
But Lydjay’s dreams for her daughter were shattered when Kateleen Myca was killed along with her father Romeo, his assistant, and a raiding police officer in what police described was a “buy bust” operations that occured in Barangay Roxas in the town of Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) in Rizal province on June 29, 2019. Police described Kateleen Myca’s death as a “collateral damage.”19 It was a police operations that went confused and out of control.
The police report said a joint team of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and PNP Intelligence of the Rizal Provincial Command was formed to conduct a buy bust operations on the basis of an intelligence report a day earlier that Renato Ulpina, aka Kato, and Enrique Cawilig, aka, Junior, were engaged in drug trading in the community. By 7:30 am of June 29, 2019, the team of PDEA and police operatives launched the buy bust operations against Ulpina with Police Master Sergeant Conrado Cabigao Jr., acting as the poseur buyer of the illegal drug.
HUMAN SHIELD. Police claimed Cabigao succeeded to buy an unspecified amount of drug from Ulpina, but when Cabigao was about to give the pre-arranged signal to arrest the sellers, Ulpina ran away to the stairs, prompting Cabigao to give chase. The police version, prepared by the PNP Rizal Provincial Command, said Police Senior Grade Ederico Edrick Zalavaria shot and killed Cawilig, who was with Ulpina at that time. At this point, Ulpina fired his gun, wounding Cabigao, police said. Ulpina ran to the roof, taking daughter Kateleen Myca to serve as his human shield.
A flurry of shots rang out and Ulpina and his daughter fell to the ground. Ulpina was killed. Although he fought, he had a ghost of a chance against the numerically superior team of police officers and PDEA operatives. The police report said they ”evacuated’ the daughter and brought her to a hospital in the Manggahan district, but she died at 1:30 am of the following day. For his part, Cabigao was shot five times and he died too.
***
DIFFERENT VERSION
PARTNER Lydjay Acopio has a different version of what transpired in the morning of June 29, 2019. In a six-page affidavit she issued, Acopio did not mention of any buy bust operations contrary to what police claimed. A number of police operatives came over to their house and broke the jalousies in the first floor to enter their house, she said in her affidavit. She woke up Renato, who said that “it was a raid.”
Acopio said she collected the five kids, including Renato’s two kids by his legal wife, to go down the stairs but, in the ensuing confusion, she left behind Kateleen Myca, who joined her father to the rooftop. Many shots rang and it was surmised that Kateleen Myca was hit by bullets from the police. It led to Ulpina’s desperation.
“Putang ina ninyo! Natamaan ninyo ang anak ko. Magpapakamatay na rin ako (you sons of bitches. You shot my kid. I’ll join her dying too),” Lydjay quoted Ulpina’s shouting those words to the raiding team of Rodriguez police officers and PDEA operatives. Seconds after those words, Ulpina came out with his blazing gun. Somebody shouted: “May tama si Boss.” Lydjay Acopio later learned that it was Cabigao, who was hit by a bullet, although she was unsure if those bullets indeed came from Ulpina’s gun.
Acopio’s affidavit disputed the police version that Cabigao was hit when he chased Ulpina in a buy bust operations. Since the buy bust operations did not happen, the chase did not happen too. This appeared to be the proper syllogism on the basis of her affidavit. It appeared that Cabigao was hit either by Ulpina or a friendly fire in the heat of the confrontation.
Acopio said that Ulpina introduced himself to her as a former soldier and it explained his knowledge of guns. By the time of his death, she did not know if Ulpina took drugs. But he was not in anyway involved in drug pushing contrary to the police claim. There was no negotiation whatsoever during the confrontation. Police appeared bent to kill Ulpina, she said in an interview with the author in a fast food joint in Quezon City.
Police Brig. Gen. Edward Carranza, regional director of the PNP Region 4 Command, issued his July 15, 2019 report, which stood by the earlier police claim that a buy bust operation took place and that Ulpina and his daughter Kateleen Myca, Cabigao, and Cawilig all died in what could be regarded legitimate police operations. Carranza likewise gave a spate of recommendations including the filing of homicide charges against police officers, who fired their guns indiscriminately leading to the child’s death. Excerpts:
It added: “Further investigation revealed that aka Kato, who real name is Renato Ulpina and the deceased unidentified male person were members of the “RAGA” gun for hire group. This criminal group is responsible in the proliferation of illegal drugs and carnapping activities in the area of Rodriguez, Rizal. As a matter of fact, the neighborhood prior to the killing of aka Kato is in unison for the filing of petition to oust aka Kato in their area for their alleged involvement in illegal activities. They were satisfied with the prompt action taken by the local police against aka Kato.”
***
DEATH BY VIGILANTES
Kristita Padual, 30, was eating dinner in an open air “turo-turo” restaurant along the 20-lane Commonwealth Avenue, the country’s widest road, in Quezon City, when two motorcycle-riding men in tandem, garbed in black shirts with black bonnets and masks to hide their faces, arrived at the restaurant. That was around 8:30 pm of March 3, 2017. The backriders quietly aimed their guns to the customers. Shots rang out and two victims fell. Kristita died with her head on the monobloc chair she used, while her body was in a kneeling position. The other victim had his body sprawling on the ground.
Vernie Estanislao, Kristita’s cousin, told the author that a diner seated beside Kristita saw the approaching two motorcycle-riding men in tandem with the backriders drawing guns. She warned “ayan na sila; magtago kayo (here they are; hide).” While diners chose to run away, Kristita ignored her, saying “hayaan mo sila (let them)” and continued taking her dinner. It was her undoing. The first tandem approached and shot her without any word or provocation, while the second tandem shot a guy, who was seated about ten meters away from Kristita. They both died instantly. The assassins were believed to be members of an anti-drug vigilante group because Kristita had no known enemies.
The killers were never identified. Because they were not identified, police did not file any charges against anybody. Neither did police work to find out the identities of the assassins. The two cases of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) died a natural death because police had nowhere to start. It was a theme that has kept on repeating on victims of EJKs by unknown vigilante groups.
What added to the injury was the aftermath of Kristita’s murder. Her family seemed so poor to give her a decent wake and burial. It took them at least two weeks to raise funds to pay the services of the police-selected funeral parlor. Even foreign journalists, who visited her wake in pursuit of a story, had to shell out modest amounts to help her burial. Kristita’s death was subject of feature articles by several publications.20 Those articles reported not just the police incompetence to track down her killers, but her family’s difficulties to give her a decent burial.
Endnotes:
1.
For sufficient background information, please read
the series of rappler.com:
2.
In one instance, a riding-in-team of assassin shot
dead a suspected drug user. After two minutes, a mobile patrol car arrived at
the crime scene allegedly to investigate the assassination. Surprised witnesses
could not help the immediate response of police, who are are known for their
official ineptitude. A police official responded by saying, “huwag na kayong
masorpresa kasi kasama rin namin ang mga bumaril (don’t be surprised, the
assassins are also our companions). This apocryphal narrrative is a totally
different story. Columnist Jarius Bondoc
of the Philippine Star, a major broadsheet daily, made sarcastic remarks in his
column. Read: https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2023/02/24/2247168/can-police-show-guns-7000-slain-nanlaban
3.
Lawyer Ma. Kristina Conti,
secretary-general of the National Union of People’s Lawyers made an interesting
discussions in an interview with Christian Esguerra in his popular podcast
program “Facts First” on Feb. 17, 2023. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS3euoBJqss
4.
It is worthwhile to mention the case of Zenaida Luz,
a human rights activist, who was gunned down on Oct. 9, 2016 by a pair of
motorcycle-riding masked men in front of her house in Gloria, Occidental
Mindoro. It was described the first case of extrajudicial killing (EJK), although
Luz was not an addict or user. The masked men were police officers, who were
and apprehended by ciizens there. Subsequent court charges were filed against
them but they were were acquitted by a Manila court. Please read:
https://abogado.com.ph/cops-acquitted-of-killing-mindoro-anticrime-crusader-as-court-finds-testimonies-conflicting/
5.
The author personally met the four mothers of their
sons, who were slain by police officers in connection with Duterte’s bloody but
failed war on drugs. They voluntarily gave statements to the author. They
claimed their statements were no different from the statements they earlier
gave to Rise Up!, a civil society group, which forwarded them to the office of
now retired ICC Special Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
6.
I am greatly indebted to the assistance of Joel
Sarmenta, a teacher, former OFW, and an ex- spokesman of the CHR. I had
frequent meetings with Joel, who explained and gave leads or follow ups of
these incidents on EJKs.
9.
This is a common knowledge. The INC supports the war
on drugs and the accompanying EJKs. It is unlike the Roman Catholic Church and
other Christian denominations that have expressed opposition to the bloody but
failed war on drugs.
12. Read:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/philippines-drugs/
13. Read:
https://www.policefilestonite.net/2022/12/09/maliit-na-tagumpay/
14. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/philippines-duterte-death-certificates/
15.
https://up.edu.ph/this-doc-sees-dead-people/
17. https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/10/20/DOJ-drug-war-review-report-52-cases.html
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/20/21/doj-releases-matrix-on-52-cases-of-drug-war-deaths
18. https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2021/1022_delima2.asp
19. Collateral
damage is widely defined as death or injury to civilians or damage to buildings
that are not connected to the military during a war. People say “collateral
damage” to avoid saying that “innocent people being killed.” They could be
regarded the unintended victims of violent skirmishes.
20. On
Kristita Padual: https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/philippines-drug-war-deaths-kristita-padual/?fbclid=IwAR2YK5HrCtx6eziw5zA5yxeco0GSeV-mjOgTUnnjc8BwCEW0rPER_bOkizk
Suggested Reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qugduxazBBg
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/philippines-duterte/
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/philippines-drugs/
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/03/17/2252424/tokhang-survivor-who-played-dead-cleared-direct-assault-case
https://www.rappler.com/nation/160105-supreme-court-writ-amparo-anti-tokhang-petition/
https://www.rappler.com/nation/160014-gruesome-tokhang-payatas-quezon-city-petition/
https://www.rappler.com/nation/165479-petition-ca-payatas-body-dumping-probe/
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/188917-oplan-tokhang-efren-morillo-drug-war-payatas-quezon-city/
https://www.rappler.com/nation/190297-tokhang-survivor-forensic-evidence-efren-morillo-drug-war/
https://chr.gov.ph/statement-of-the-commission-on-human-rights-welcoming-the-courts-acquittal-of-efren-morillo-of-direct-assault-charge/
https://www.philstar.com/metro/2017/07/10/1718421/another-murder-rap-tokhang-slay-cop
https://www.rappler.com/nation/160014-gruesome-tokhang-payatas-quezon-city-petition/
