WAR ON DRUGS composite image from Inquirer file photos
MANILA, Philippines — A resource person of the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee probing the drug war on Monday told senators that she sold illegal drugs, but their supply came from police officers.
During the panel’s hearing, Cristina Gonzales admitted that she and her husband, Joselito, felt emboldened to sell illegal drugs because policemen assured them that they would not be arrested.
Gonzales said that despite this, Joselito was killed in July 2016, just after former president Rodrigo Duterte took office.
“I am Cristina Gonzales, wife of Joselito Gonzales, who hails from Antipolo City. Just like what they said, everyone knows that we sell illegal drugs. Yes that’s true, but what we sell came from police officers,” she said in Filipino.
“That’s why we were not afraid during that time that we were selling drugs because it came from them. They told us not to worry about being arrested because the substance came from them. But when they said that they would clean, my husband was told to leave Antipolo because they would clean by 2016,” she added.
According to Gonzales, her husband did not leave Antipolo City as he felt that police officers would not harm him. But after Joselito was taken by police officers on July 5, 2016, Gonzales said the next time she saw him was in a morgue. He was dead.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, the first Philippine National Police (PNP) chief appointed by Duterte, asked Gonzales why she did not report what happened to authorities. He was already PNP chief when Gonzales’ husband was killed.
“You know, had you informed authorities about this, you know what happened before. We chased after ninja cops. If we did not have evidence to administratively or criminally pin them down, all those ninja cops were sent to Mindanao — Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao,” Dela Rosa said in Filipino.
“We threw them there so that they will be removed from your communities, so they can no longer operate. You should have reported it to the authorities, to the chief of police,” she added.
Gonzales, however, said she could not file formal complaints at that time because she moved out of Antipolo as she was fearing for her life.
“I was asked to leave Antipolo during that time as I may be killed,” she said in Filipino.
“I’m sorry if you were fearful, but I think you should have reported that to us so that the cop would be removed from your area,” Dela Rosa told Gonzales.
Gonzales’ case was one of the few drug war killing cases that were officially deemed as extrajudicial killing (EJK).
In August 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that the privilege of the writ of amparo is meant to protect victims from the threat of extrajudicial killing, upholding a protective order sought by Gonzales after Joselito was killed.
According to the order, Gonzales had a good reason to fear for her life. The high court acknowledged the threats to Gonzales’ life, liberty, and security, including allegations that prior to the issuance of the writ in 2017, she and her husband were both solicited by law enforcers to sell illegal drugs and were threatened to be entrapped or murdered on several occasions.
READ: SC favors drug war widow, calls PNP ops ‘extralegal killing’
The Senate blue ribbon panel started its investigation into the drug war after Dela Rosa and Sen. Bong Go filed resolutions on the matter following issues that came out during the House of Representatives’ quad-committee hearings.
During previous discussions, several incidents of alleged EJKs were raised, like the killing of three Chinese nationals in 2016 supposedly carried out by two inmates tapped by police officers and the assassination of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office board secretary Wesley Barayuga in July 2021.
In the Chinese nationals’ case, confessed hitman Leopoldo Tan said a certain SPO4 Arthur Narsolis, his high school classmate, supposedly relayed to him the orders to kill the Chinese nationals.
Tan said he heard Bureau of Corrections S/Supt. Gerardo Padilla talking over the phone with Duterte, who congratulated the prison officials for a job well done.
Padilla initially denied having knowledge of the hit, but eventually admitted that he indeed talked to Duterte who congratulated him.
READ: Duterte ordered killing of Chinese inmates, BuCor exec confirms