Bayan: Duterte promotes impunity by protecting cops in mayor’s slay

Militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Thursday said President Rodrigo Duterte should not encourage extrajudicial killings by protecting policemen involved in the death of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.

Duterte on Wednesday said he would not allow the policemen who shot Espinosa while the latter was in detention to go to prison even if the National Bureau of Investigation had ruled it as murder.

READ: Duterte: I won’t allow cops who killed Mayor Espinosa go to jail

“President Duterte’s recent statements on the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa, that he will not allow the policemen involved to go to jail, encourages impunity and the blatant violation of the law,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said in a statement.

Reyes said Duterte’s words were “unacceptable as (they are) dangerous.”

“While the President says he will not interfere in the filing of the case in court, his repeated pronouncements that he believes the police version – despite contrary findings by the NBI – (are) indeed problematic,” he said.

“Even when faced with evidence of wrongdoing by the police, the President insists on giving them the presumption of regularity,” Reyes added.

READ: Bato: Duterte will do everything to spare cops from being jailed

He pointed out that Duterte’s message was not only for the policemen under the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Region 8 but also other policemen involved in the administration’s war on drugs.

“That no policeman who has killed a drug lord, no matter how questionable the circumstances may be, will go to jail under his watch. This has been interpreted by the police as a license to kill with impunity,” he said.

Reyes called the incident “tragic” as Duterte gave his statement a few days before Human Rights Day.

“This cannot go on. The President must stop making such pronouncements that are taken as policy statements of the Chief Executive,” he said. CDG/rga