Ex-cop on Duterte’s drug list shot dead

GRIM END A ride in a pedicab ends badly for Supt. Roberto Palisoc who quit the police force two years ago. —MPD photo

A police official who had opted to retire early after President Duterte accused him of being involved in the drug trade in 2016 was killed by two men on a motorcycle on Sunday morning.

Supt. Roberto Palisoc, formerly of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), was declared dead at the Ospital ng Maynila at 9:53 a.m.

He was a chief inspector assigned to the antinarcotics division of the Manila Police District (MPD) Station 7 when his name appeared on the President’s “narco list” along with politicians, judges, other policemen and military men in August 2016.

Last assignments

Despite this, Palisoc was still promoted to the next rank. His last assignments were with the Northern Police District and NCRPO until he applied for early retirement that same year.

“We are checking all possible angles in our investigation, but one of the motives could be association with [illegal] drugs,” Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, NCRPO director, said on Sunday.

According to Eleazar, it did not appear as if any criminal charges were filed against Palisoc in the last two years despite his inclusion in Mr. Duterte’s drug watch list.

But Eleazar added that he was still verifying if the retired officer had been charged administratively.

Eleazar said he was unsure if Palisoc’s early retirement had anything to do with his inclusion in the watch list. Two Quezon City policemen were immediately relieved and placed under investigation for the same reason, a fate that Palisoc apparently evaded.

Warning from President

Mr. Duterte earlier warned police officers on the list that he would order “the entire Armed Forces and the police to hunt [them down] if they refuse to turn themselves in.”

Supt. Igmedio Bernaldez, MPD Ermita police station commander, said that Palisoc was shot as he was in a pedicab with his neighbor, Renato Dumalaon, on San Andres corner A. Linao Streets at 9:32 a.m.

Dumalaon remains confined in the hospital for gunshot wounds on his left arm.

The assailants were on a red motorcycle and waited for the pedicab to pass by before the backrider opened fire, witnesses told the police.

The pedicab driver said everything happened so fast that he did not know Palisoc had been shot until he saw the victim drenched in his own blood.