‘Lazarus’ released, detained at MPD

FRANCISCO Santiago Jr. rests in the hospital hours after he survived a police shoot-out on Sept. 13. Aie Balagtas See

Francisco Santiago Jr., the drug suspect who “rose from the dead” like the biblical character Lazarus, is worried about his safety following his release from the hospital.

Santiago, nicknamed JayR, left the Ospital ng Maynila on Wednesday afternoon, a week after the Malate police supposedly killed him in a shoot-out after a consummated drug deal on Aldecoa Street.

But Santiago played dead, and lived to belie the official police story. “There was no buy-bust,” he earlier told the Inquirer from his hospital bed, one of his hands cuffed to the railing.

Santiago was discharged yesterday after he was confined for gunshot wounds in the chest and arms. His aunt Yolly said they were worried since Santiago would now be detained on  drug pushing charges.

The Malate police earlier charged him with violating Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Yolly said they were initially told that he would be detained at the Malate police station, a suggestion they opposed since “this was where the policemen who tried to kill him” were assigned.

The family was relieved when on Wednesday afternoon, Santiago was taken to the Manila Police District (MPD) headquarters on UN Avenue. After his transfer, however, he has been barred from giving interviews, Yolly claimed.

In the official police report, Santiago and a certain George Huggins, 45, sold P500-worth of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) to an undercover policeman at 1:25 a.m. on Sept. 13. This led to a shoot-out that, according to PO3 Roy Candelario’s initial report to the MPD homicide unit, claimed the lives of both men. But when the media arrived at the site, Santiago, who was lying face down, sat up and said he was surrendering, surprising everyone.

‘Planted’ evidence

Yolly and Santiago’s mother, Ligaya, have denied his involvement in illegal drugs, saying the evidence against him was “planted” which made his arrest “illegal.”

Yolly said Santiago now had a clearer recollection of events. She added that it was difficult to understand her nephew at first because he was struggling to speak due to a gunshot wound in the chest.

 Another version of events

According to his version of the events, Santiago, a pedicab driver, was waiting for a passenger in front of San Andres Market past noon of Sept. 12 when a man boarded his vehicle, introducing himself as a policeman. This encounter was captured by the barangay’s surveillance camera.

Santiago told his aunt that the man asked to be taken to a supermarket close to the Malate police station to buy rice.

But the man forced him to stop and go inside the police station where he was mauled by a police official who “forced him to admit he was a drug pusher,”  he claimed.

Santiago told Yolly that there was another man in the room whom he did not know. This later turned out to be Huggins.

Both men stayed inside the police station until around midnight, the policemen ordered Santiago to wear a black jacket. He claimed that a gun and three sachets of shabu were placed inside the pockets.

The duo was brought out of the police station and made to get into Santiago’s pedicab. They were taken to Aldecoa Street where they were then shot, the victim told his aunt.