Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael “Mike” Sueno. KING RODRIGUEZ/PPD
Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno on Friday said the government would make accountable the police officers found to have violated operational procedures during the violent dispersal of protesters at the US Embassy in Manila on Wednesday.
“In the event that maximum tolerance was not observed and there was endangerment of human life, the police are to be held fully accountable,” Sueno said in a statement.
The secretary called on the Philippine National Police to conduct a “speedy investigation” of the incident.
“We call for thoroughness and transparency in the PNP’s probe of the events, and we condemn to the highest degree any violation of public safety, of the rights of the protesters,” he said.
Sueno reminded policemen their mandate is to serve and protect the public.
He said that aside from the Manila Police District, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Internal Affairs Service were conducting parallel probes.
He said the PNP was also “closely coordinating” with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Commission on Human Rights in responding to the needs and concerns of the protesters.
The protesters who were run over by a police van in the rally dispersal brought their grievance to Malacañang yesterday in a letter, asking President Duterte to ensure an independent probe of the incident.
Members of the group Sandugo, an alliance of Moro and indigenous peoples, also sought an audience with the President to air their concerns and demands for justice for the killing of lumad people, and for the abrogation of treaties with the United States.
In their letter to the President, Sandugo said the group’s “peaceful” anti-US rally in front of the US Embassy was coming to an end when members of the Manila police came at them with “brute force.”
Video showed a police van mowing down protesters as it drove forward and backward through the crowd. The police said the officer behind the wheel had panicked.
But Sandugo lead convenor Piya Macliing Malayao told reporters the driver had the intention to kill. If he only panicked, he would not have driven forward and backward through a crowd of people, she said.
Around 60 policemen were relieved of their duties pending investigation of their roles in the dispersal.
Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde, National Capital Region Police Office chief, said on Friday the 60 were apart from the nine already relieved by the NCRPO.