‘Apparent bloodlust’: De Lima condemns shooting of retired soldier Ragos

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Leila De Lima condemned the unjustified shooting that killed Army retiree and person with disability Winston Ragos as she demanded that justice be done swiftly.

De Lima, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte and currently detained due to drug charges, said there’s an “apparent insatiable bloodlust in some of our policemen” after Ragos was killed during the enhanced community quarantine.

“Their being an executioner doesn’t even choose a time or place. In this alleged war on drugs, how many innocent and defenseless people, some are children and with disability, have been killed that they portrayed as someone who retaliated?” said De Lima in a dispatch from Camp Crame Saturday.

“And now that the ECQ rules are being implemented, how many Winston Ragos would be the victims of these senseless and trigger-happy cops?”’

Police Master Sergeant Daniel Florendo, the cop who shot Ragos, has been charged with homicide while the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are conducting separate investigations.

De Lima said that there are “rotten eggs” in every police force, and the ones in the PNP have been so deteriorated that it has become severe.

She added that trigger-happy cops have been emboldened with Duterte’s words of “shoot to kill, shoot them dead” during the time of the Tokhang operations and even until the COVID-19 crisis.

“He has openly ordered cops to kill people who’re allegedly violating law and order. This has to stop. This other tragedy, the state-inspired killings of the hapless and helpless has to end,” said De Lima.

“I’m calling on all sectors, groups, individuals, in and out of the government to let us unite and change this culture of violence and killing.”