Wife of slain ‘pusher’ claims police brutality during arrest
An emotional, pregnant mother faced the Senate on Monday and alleged how her live-in partner and their two-year-old daughter suffered from police brutality during a buy-bust operation last month.
Harra Kazuo was among the witnesses called by Senator Leila De Lima during the hearing of the Senate committee of justice and human rights on alleged extrajudicial killings in the country.
Kazuo recalled that on the night of July 6, three policemen barged into their house in Pasay City and looked for her partner, JP Bertes.
“Ang direct na salita po sa amin, nasaan daw po yung drugs?” she recalled one policeman saying, responding to queries from De Lima.
Kazuo admitted that her partner was a drug pusher but said they were already planning to surrender him to the police.
“Naghahanda po kami para isuko,” she said.
Asked why they would surrender Bertes, the witness broke down and said: “Kasi nga po natatakot nga ako na mamatay sya.”
The police, she said, then searched their house looking for drugs to the extent that one of the policemen removed the underwear of her daughter, who was two years old at that time.
“Dere-deretso sila sa bahay dahil ako po noon noong makita ko yung isang pulis, tumalon ako, tumalon ako doon sa higaan ko . Sa pagkatalon ko po yung isang pulis, bumaling sa akin, yun po yung sinasabi kong bukbukin ang mukha. Natandaan ko po kasi yung mukha nya e. Hindi po ako nagtanda ng name nya,” she said.
The witness described one of the policemen as “chubby.”
Kazuo said her daughter as well as her mother-in-law were present when the police were rummaging through their house.
“Umiyak po kasi ang bata so ang ginawa ko po kasi natakot din po sya sa biglang pagapsok ng mga pulis, kinarga ko po ang bata. Pagkarga ko po ng bata akala ng pulis may tinatago po ako dun sa bata, sa puwet ng bata. So ang ginawa po nya hinubaran po nya ng panty ang anak ko tapos binulatlat yung pwet ng bata,” said the witness, who again broke into tears.
At one point, she said, one of the policemen threatened to kill him but she said Bertes begged not to do it in front of his family.
Kazuo said her father-in-law, Renato Bertes, later arrived at their house while the police were searching for drugs. The police, she said, did not find any illegal drugs from their house.
She said her partner and father-in-law were brought to the Pasay police SAID, or Station Against Illegal Drugs, detention cell, where they were later killed while allegedly trying to grab the gun of a policeman.
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