CHAPTER 2 EJKS NRRATIVES (Last of two Parts)
Continuation:
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.
Aurora told Reuters she did not speak to any police officer or investigator after Thelmo died. She claimed she was not aware of the contents of the police report. Neither was she provided a copy of the waiver she signed at the funeral home either. A mortician in the funeral parlor advised her to place bronchopneumonia as the cause of death on her husband’s death certificate. An autopsy could mean an expenditure on her part. She acceded because she did not have the money for an autopsy. It was ironical that when Dr. Fortun did a forensic examination on his exhumed body, the bracelet with “Duterte for President” fell on the floor, according to the Reuters account.
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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 regarded as the first forensic pathologist in the Philippines. A feature 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 featured 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 for 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 a 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 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
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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 the mass media bit those EJKs, 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 reporting 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 member 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 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. Their family did not raise a howl and it died a natural death. Nothing had happened.
The death of Mariano “Banjo” Cielo in a police operation in the Payatas community near 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 operation 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 ut 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 work 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 a formal investigation of the charges against Duterte. But this is another story.
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‘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.
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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 any buy bust operation 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 on 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 quotes 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 operation. 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 any way involved in drug pushing contrary to the police claim. There was no negotiation whatsoever during the confrontation. Police appeared bent on killing 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:
"PSMS Cabigao chased aka Kato and he was still in the stairs when shot by the latter. He was hit on his neck and right forearm. While PSMS Cabigao was on that blind spot, he returned several shots that hit a.k.a. Kato and the child’s nape and the bullet exited on her cheek. Accordingly, PSMS Cabigao fell on the floor and was hit again on his feet. The other operatives while aka Kato hid himself on the roof. A firefight ensued until the latter fell on the ground lifeless while with five (5) gunshot wounds in his body.”
It added: “Further investigation revealed that aka Kato, whose 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.”
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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 back riders quietly aimed their guns at 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 back riders 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 for 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 the subject of feature articles by several publications.20 The articles reported not just the police incompetence to track down her killers, but her family’s difficulties to give her a decent burial.
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DYNAMICS OF DRUG TRADE
SINCE the Payatas community represents Philippine society, where a big part of the community lives on a level lower than the povery line to keep body and soul together, drug trade there has persisted to have its own dynamics. At least two syndicates or groups control the drug trade in the Payatas community. One group is led by a certain individual, who sports the alias “Muslim” and another group by “Chua.” These drug syndicates have their own organized structures, a coterie of middlemen and runners, who do the peddling, and lawyers, who work for the release of runners, who have encountered problems with law enforcers. Drug lords Muslim and Chua are not known to the community. They do not appear publicly. Their subalterns appear instead for them, creating a mystique in their personae.
The Payatas market is big even for a single controlling trader. Hence, the two groups do not appear to operate in conflict. They tolerate each other to ensure their continued divided dominance of the Payatas market. The kind of meth (shabu) they peddle differ in quality to indicate that they do not get their supply from a single source. A set of police officers protect them and, in most likelihood, they know and tolerate each other. There were times these rival police officers had differing opinions, but they always ended up settling their differences for the peace of the community and continuing drug operations. Hence, drug trade has remained flourishing there. This balance was somewhat disrupted when a number of police officers from Davao City arrived in 2016 purportedly to augment the police forces there.
The imbalance somewhat put the Payatas-based police officers in untold discomfort because the reassigned Davao City-based police forces had different orders and they came directly from then PNP Director-General Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa. The PNP generals, who were then assigned to handle the PNP National Capital Region Command, did not like it because it meant even their orders could be rescinded off especially if they ran counter to dela Rosa’s. As PNP director-general, dela Rosa personally assumed control of the Payatas community especially on issues of EJKs. This was unusual for a PNP top honcho.
Fr. Danny Pilario, one of the four Roman Catholic priests assigned in the Payatas community at the height of the war on drugs in 2016-2017 period, claimed to have watched with combined trepidation and bewilderment the developments of Duterte’s bloody but failed war on drugs there. He claimed to have seen how the loss of breadwinners has devastated many families, which were already living below the marginal level. Because of the government’s refusal and inability to help the families of EJK victims, the local parish of the Roman Catholic Church has formed a non-government organization (NGO) to attend to their needs. The Solidarity for Faith has initiated livelihood projects there to employ family members of EJK victims, teach them employable skills, and keep their body and soul together.
Employed family members of EJK victims sewed clothes, personal protective equipment (PPEs), face masks, disrags, and other disposable items. They were sold to the outside world, providing the wherewithal to enable many families to survive hunger associated with unproductivity and lack of employment. According to Fr. Pilario, they were criticized that the daily income was even below the legislated minimum wage, while they worked for the maximum eight hours of work. But he justified this arrangement, saying that although their daily income did not reach the minimum wage level, their jobs ensured they had food on the table to meet the barest minimum. They did not have to go hungry, he said.
VATICAN TWO. Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario is a Roman Catholic priest, who practices what he preaches. He knows and understands the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, which have turned the Church doctrines upside down. From an instrument of the elite before the Second World War, the Roman Catholic Church has come to embrace its role as the defender of the poor and the defenseless. Hence, the phrase “preferential option for the poor” has evolved to become its operational basis. His involvement in the Payatas community is just a manifestation of his increasing role in the majority Church.
Fr. Pilario is a member of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) in the Philippines. He is an associate professor and dean of St. Vincent School of Theology at Adamson University in Quezon City. He was born and raised in Oslob, Cebu province. Fr. Pilario earned an undergraduate philosophy degree at Adamson University, a bachelor’s in theology at the University of Santo Tomas, and a master’s and doctoral degree at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.
Being trained in theology, Fr. Pilario is a prolific writer of theological issues. His book, “Back to the Rough Grounds of Praxis: Exploring Theological Method with Pierre Bourdieu” (Leuven, 2005), was awarded the Jan en Marie Huyse Prijs of the Leuven Academic Foundation as the best research in the humanities in 2003. He has also written “After the End: Reflections of the Happy Theologian in and on the Rough Grounds (2014), and other monographs.”
He edited or coedited several anthologies. The most recent are The Ambivalence of Sacrifice
(2013); Christian Orthodoxy (2014); Globalization and
the Church of the Poor (2015);
Philippine Local Churches after the Spanish Regime
(2015); Faith in Action: Catholic Social
Teaching on the Ground (2015); Second Plenary Council
of the Philippines: Quo Vadis (2015);
Theology and Power: International Perspectives 2016);
Suffering and God (2016); Minorities
(2017); Theology, Conflict and Peacebuilding (2018);
Asian Christianities (2018); and Signs of
Hope in Muslim-Christian Relations (2020).
Fr. Pilario belongs to the editorial boards of philosophical and theological journals. Among them
are Hapág: Interdisciplinary Journal of Theology;
Sian Christian Review; Concilium: International Journal of Theology; Institute
of Spirituality in Asia; PHAVISMINDA; and the International Journal of
Philosophy and Theology. He has extensively published in national and
international academic journals. His field of research covers fundamental
theology, cultural theories and inculturation, liberation theology, theological
anthropology, methods of theological research, political-social theory,
theology and ecology, Catholic social teaching, and justice and human rights.
Fr. Pilario is also a former President and founding member of DaKaTeo, the Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines. He is a professorial lecturer at universities and seminaries in the country, and regularly ministers at a garbage dumpsite parish in Payatas, Quezon City on weekends.
DISMISSAL. Ma. Lourdes Sereno, viewed by Duterte and his cohorts in and outside of the Supreme Court and his government as a stumbling block to pursuit of their perverted view of justice, was subject to vicious, concerted attacks by the Duterte attacks dogs that led to her dismissal from the Supreme Court by the use of a patently unconstitutional way. Sereno did not contest her 2018 dismissal as the chief magistrate of the Supreme Court, but found another calling as an advocate of social justice and good governance.
Sereno has formed in 2018 the Bawat Isa Mahalaga (B1M), an NGO that seeks to enhance public accountability in governance. Since it takes it roots in the Payatas community, Sereno, a Christian evangelical, has taken steps to organize the orphaned children of EJK victims to make them productive citizens.
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‘NIGHTCRAWLERS’
LITERALLY, they crawled at night. Since most EJKs happened at night, when police targets were supposed to be home with their families, some photojournalists established a new routine in their lives. They slept during the day, but were around to shoot the EJK victims at night. They called themselves “The Nightcrawlers.” They were around 15 or so photojournalists in this informal group of Metro Manila-based photojournalists. Some were employed in different news organizations; the rest were freelancers, who contributed their shots to some photo news agencies and news organizations, local and foreign outfits that include online. They were men and women on a mission, which was to document Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.21
The photojournalists were not automatons, who took shots and left the scenes of crime to complete a day of work. They were living witnesses to this dark episode in history. Their cameras were not limited to shooting the dead and victims, but to the living – the grieving widows, family members, relatives, and friends as well. They saw widows and kids, and parents as well especially mothers, crying barrels of tears to express their unmitigated grief over the murder and death of their loved ones. On several instances, they had to contribute a part of their earnings to the families of EJKs to defray funeral expenses. These families were too poor to give victims a decent burial. These photojournalists were humans too.
PRESSURES OF WORK. The pressures of work during the height of those EJKs in 2016-2017, were simply overwhelming and exhausting by any stretch of imagination, according to Vincent Go, a member of the Manila Nightcrawlers. They shot a minimum of six or seven EJK victims a night to a high of 26. In some instances, the sun was high and boiling, yet they were still on the go to take shots of victims because they were just too many.
On some occasions, they encountered investigating police officers, who, although gave them unprecedented access to shoot, would give them unsolicited snide remarks to emphasize their power of life and death over the victims. While true, their comments were not necessary because their targets were already lifeless, according to Vincent, but, in most instances, their comments were insults to the remaining intelligence of anybody, who care to listen.
They also had to bear unsolicited remarks from police officers, who viewed the photojournalists as “allies” of some leftwing forces that adhere to human rights and even the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the constitutional body tasked to protect human rights. In these instances, the covering photojournalists refused to answer and dignify their remarks. They offered nothing but stony silence. “Silence was an answer in itself,” Vincent said.
The World Movement for Democracy, an NGO devoted to uphold democratic rights worldwide: said in a fitting tribute to these journalists: “Nightwatchers — a group of photojournalists take the ‘night shift’ to capture and publish images which bring the disturbing reality of Duterte’s war on drugs to light. Since the beginning of the war, Ezra Acayan estimates he has taken photos of at least 500 bodies and attended around 100 funerals. In the absence of publishers willing to print his images, he uses social media to bring awareness to both the dead and those left behind. Ezra, Raffy, and the other Nightwatchers are clear on the message they want to convey: no one should be killed without due process. And as journalists, they believe it is their duty to bring the truth to light.”
Vince Go has chosen to immortalize the “Nightcrawlers” in the following words:
Nightcrawlers of Manila
When Duterte came to power in July of 2016, bodies began to pile up in the streets of [Metro Manila]. The number of those killed or executed was staggering, averaging about more than a thousand a month in the first six months of the Duterte administration.
The killings that [happened] divided the Media in the field. Some were pro, while [others] were against [them]. We were just an informal group of photojournalists from different organizations that saw there was something seriously wrong with the police narratives about the killings and were against extrajudicial killings. We, as a group, did not really call ourselves anything. We were just ordinary journalists doing our jobs. It was in Aug., 2016 when a reporter from the LA Times came to Manila and joined our night coverages. We helped and shared information with him. His story came out late August called “Meet the Nightcrawlers of Manila: A Night on the Frontlines of the Philippines’ War on Drugs.”
We just thought that it was just a way to sensationalize the story and give it a little flare but eventually it was the one that stuck with the foreign media and our local media followed it.”
LUXURY OF SPACE. Standing at almost six feet, Vincent Go has a distinct advantage as a photojournalist. Being tall gives him the rare vantage unlike his shorter colleagues. Vince has the luxury of space to move around his camera to get the best shots of an event or other objects of his photography. It is his devotion to journalism and his craft that have goaded Vince to seek new heights for his chosen career.
Vince did not hesitate to accept probably the most daunting challenge of his career. He is among the photojournalists, who had decided to cover regularly those victims of EJKs, since 2016. Many photojournalists were called by the call of duty, so to speak, but he was among the photojournalists, who have immediately responded to join the enterprising ones, who hardly hesitated to do their share. Vince likes to believe that he stood at the crossroads of history when his services were called – or when it was most counted. He was never a bystander, he said.
Vince attended the 5 th PCP Photojournalism and Documentary Workshop in 2008. He took advantage of the documentary skills he learned from this workshop to become a fulltime freelance photojournalist and correspondent since 2009. He covered events related to social issues, environment, conflicts and calamities and disasters. He contributed photographs to news outlets like ABS-CBN, Vera Files, and rappler.com, among the local news outfits. His shots also landed in the international news agencies like Xinhua, Reuters, and Agence France Presses. He did assignments for Al Jazeera, SVT, NRK, Axel Springer.
His professional expertise did not escape the attention of what could be regarded as outside parties, which are not necessarily involved in news dissemination. Hence, Vince Go did commissioned works for various NGOs and religious organizations. Since July of 2016, Vince has focused to cover and document the so-called war on drugs.
Endnotes:
1. For sufficient background information, please read the series of rappler.com:
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/drug-war-widow-asks-why-rodrigo-duterte-still-free-loved-ones-dead-killed/
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/pain-lingers-brothers-lost-under-duterte-marcos-jr-administrations/
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/girl-lost-mother-asks-will-justice-come-duterte-drug-war-victims/
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/under-marcos-jr-administration-rodrigo-duterte-accountability-drug-war-killings/
2. In one instance, a riding-in-team of assassins 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 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 narrative 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 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 as 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 citizens there. Subsequent court charges were filed against them but they 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.
7. Read: https://www.rappler.com/nation/university-philippines-manila-st-scholastica-college-message-government-natividad-castro-arrest/
8. Read: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/188904-impunity-series-police-killings-quezon-city-ejk/
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.
10. Read: https://interaksyon.philstar.com/breaking-news/2017/12/22/114232/lone-survivor-of-payatas-birthday-massacre-attributed-to-davao-boys-missing/
11. Read: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/payatas-drug-war-victim-mother-vows-never-surrender-duterte-exhumation-series/
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/
16. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/26/they-were-shot-in-the-head-morgue-gives-up-truth-of-rodrigo-dutertes-drug-war?CMP=share_btn_tw16.
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
21. https://films.nationalgeographic.com/the-nightcrawlers
https://www.movedemocracy.org/nightcrawlers-photojournalists-philippines
https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/movies-and-tv/national-geographic-the-nightcrawlers-a1926-20190830
https://interaksyon.philstar.com/trends-spotlights/2019/08/29/154118/national-geographic-philippines-duterte-drug-war/
https://interaksyon.philstar.com/trends-spotlights/2019/08/29/154118/national-geographic-philippines-duterte-drug-war/
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/
https://www.cfr.org/interview/human-rights-and-dutertes-war-drugs
https://www.omct.org/en/resources/reports/ill-kill-you-along-with-drug-addicts-president-dutertes-war-on-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines
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