‘KILL KILL KILL’ (23)

HINDI biro ang sinabi ni Sagip Party List Rep. Rodante Marcoleta na nasuhulan umano si Comelec chair George Garcia ng Miru Systems ng South Korea upang pangasiwaan ang 2025 automated midterm elections. Naideposito umano ni Garcia ang suhol sa iba’t’-ibang offshore accounts, ani Marcoleta. Nag-isyu si Garcia ng waiver of secrecy upang alamin ng Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) kung totoo o hindi ang paratang.

Tingnan natin kung ilalabas ni Marcoleta ang pangalan ng mga bangko na pinag depositohan umano ng suhol. Kasalukuyang sinisiyasat ng Senado ang paratang ni Marcoleta. May mga salita na kinakatawan umano ni Marcoleta ang isang bidder na hindi sumama sa public bidding na sinabing niluto umano ng Comelec para sa Miru Systems. Sino ang nasa katotohanan?

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PAGPAPATULOY ito ng pangalawang tsapter ng aking aklat “KILL KILL KILL Extrajudicial Killings in the Philippines; Crimes Against Humanity v. Rodrigo Duterte Et. Al.” Tinalakay ko ang ilang yugto ng karahasan at kalupitan sa ilang patayan ng giyera kontra droga.

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 members 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 the 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 put 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.”

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. (Itutuloy)