Since President Duterte declared a war on drugs when he took over the presidency in July, Donna Pinga has lost two uncles, both of them alleged drug pushers.
One of them, Edwin Pinga, was on his way to the bakery to buy bread at 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 17 when he was shot by a man in a white van on Dr. Sixto Antonio Avenue in Barangay Rosario, Pasig City.
According to the Pasig police, Pinga was a drug pusher whose name was on their watch list.
At 11:15 p.m. Monday, another of Donna’s uncles was killed by bonnet-wearing gunmen inside his house in Purok 5, Barangay Maybunga, Pasig City. Bernie Halcon, 47, died on the spot, along with three other friends.
According to Donna, Halcon was a single man who enjoyed the company of his three friends and his dog Blackie.
The dog, also one of the witnesses to the killings, has not moved since from the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor where his owner was killed.
“Maybe he is waiting for Uncle Bernie to come home. We don’t know how to tell him he’s gone,” Donna said.
According to Halcon’s neighbors who refused to be identified for fear of their lives, six men on three motorcycles went inside their compound, two of them remaining at the entrance to serve as lookouts.
At that time, Halcon was watching television with his 18-year-old niece and her friend, in addition to his friends: Roland Santos of Barangay Rosario, alias Onay of Barangay Caniogan and alias Jayson of Cubao, Quezon City.
All of them were herded upstairs to the second floor of the house where Halcon’s niece and friend were ordered to go inside one of the rooms. They were not harmed.
Halcon and his friends, however, were shot dead. Crime scene operatives later recovered 29 slugs and casings from an unknown firearm, as well as a sachet of what was believed to be “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride).
A police investigation showed that Halcon was a drug pusher whose name was on the barangay’s drug watchlist.
Barangay officials, however, said that Halcon had earlier surrendered under “Oplan Tokhang” as a drug user, not as a pusher. But one official said he did not know that the victim was involved in illegal drugs, adding that he thought Halcon was a professional “tambay” (bum).
Santos, on the hand, was a “self-confessed” drug user and pusher who had also surrendered to authorities.
The police report, meanwhile, mistakenly identified Jayson as a resident of Maybunga and a drug pusher in the barangay. Local officials, however, said that he was there to have his business permit processed because he wanted to store vegetables in Halcon’s house.
Donna said she was hurt when people, especially the police, were quick to brand her uncle a drug pusher.
“He used to be a pusher but he cleaned up his act. Why was he not given a chance to change for the better?” Donna asked. She lamented that the police used the same “script” when her other uncle was killed.
“We already know that we cannot get justice because no one identified the killers. We just want my uncle’s name to be cleared,” she told the Inquirer.