MANILA, Philippines — Senator Richard Gordon on Friday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to order a “top-level investigation” on police and military generals following the fatal shooting of four Army intelligence officers in Jolo, Sulu.
In a statement, Gordon condemned the killing of the soldiers “at the hands of police officers.”
“It was not a rub-out, it was a clear murder. The four army officers had no guns and I deplore the mendacity and the maliciousness of the police officers which was evidenced in the fact that they tampered with the evidence and the crime scene,” he said.
“I also call on the President to conduct a top-level investigation on all generals of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Army. There is a need to investigate and determine what is wrong with the policy that incidents such as these occur,” he added.
The four soldiers were fatally shot by police officers some 50 meters from the Jolo police station Monday afternoon.
Duterte is set to visit Mindanao to meet with military and police commanders following the Sulu incident.
Earlier, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the President was saddened by the incident.
Philippine Army chief Lieutenant General Gilbert Gapay, meanwhile, denounced what he called the “murder” of four soldiers who were returning from an intelligence mission when they were gunned down by police officers in Jolo, Sulu.
The PNP initially claimed that the incident was a “misencounter” but Gapay rejected it and said that “it was a rubout.”
The chief of Jolo Municipal police has been relieved, along with the nine police officers involved in the killing of the soldiers.
The National Bureau of Investigation is already conducting an investigation into the incident.
Senators Risa Hontiveros and Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, have also called for a Senate probe into the shooting.