Survivor, victims’ kin question drug war in Supreme court

Respondents: PNP chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa; and QCPD chief, Senior Supt. Guillermo Eleazar

In what is considered the first legal challenge to President Duterte’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, a group of Quezon City residents has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the police from implementing the “Oplan Tokhang” campaign, saying it was being used to skirt due process, kill unarmed suspects and scare witnesses into silence.

The petitioners, led by a vegetable vendor who survived a police drug raid in Barangay Payatas on Aug. 21, 2016, want the high tribunal to issue a writ of amparo as protection against the police, particularly members of Quezon City Police District (QCPD).

Instituted in 2007, the writ is a legal remedy available to any person whose right to life, liberty and security is violated or threatened.

Named respondents are the Philippine National Police chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa; the QCPD director, Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar; the QCPD-Batasan station chief, Supt. Lito Patay; Senior Insp. Emil Garcia, PO3 Allan Formilleza, PO1 James Aggarao, P01 Melchor Navisaga, and any of their agents.

The petitioners include Efren Morillo, Martino Morillo, Victoria Morillo, Ma. Belen Daa, Marla Daa, Maribeth Bartolay, Lydia Gabo, Jennifer Nicolas and Marilyn Malimban.

They asked that the respondents be barred from entering an area five kilometers from the petitioners’ homes and workplaces.

Efren Morillo was a survivor of the police raid while the others represented the families of four drug suspects who were killed: Marcelo Daa Jr., Raffy Gabo, Anthony Comendo and Jessie Cule.

Shot while on their knees

Morillo, 28, denied police allegations that he and his friends were drug dealers, according to the petition.  They were shot with their hands bound and could not have possibly threatened police, it added.

Three of the victims were ordered to kneel on the ground at the back of a shanty before they were shot to death. The last to be killed “begged to be spared, hugging the legs of one of the armed men and sobbing. As he would not let go of his hold, the man shot him on the nape,” the petition said.

The petitioners said that almost six months after the raid, the police kept returning to “the scene of the crime” and to their neighborhood “in an obvious attempt to manipulate evidence and antagonize witnesses.”

Like Morillo, “the other petitioners suffer the same violation of their right to life, liberty and security… They could not go to work because they are afraid to leave their children alone in their houses. Their lives are at a standstill. Even the neighbors and members of the larger community are victimized because of the paralyzing fear wrought by the blatant threats from the policemen involved in the killings,” the petition added.

The respondents from QCPD also fabricated death certificates and police reports to make it appear that the incident happened in another barangay, the petition further alleged.

The petition pointed out that, assuming that the targets of the August 2016 raid were drug suspects, the police should have followed the rule of law by filing a case and causing the issuance of arrest and search warrants.

The SC was also asked to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of Tokhang in Area B, Barangay Payatas, as well in other areas covered by QCPD-Batasan (Station 6).

When launched in July, the first month of the Duterte administration, Tokhang actually referred to the PNP campaign that compelled known drug users and pushers in a community to “surrender” and be registered so that they could be referred for rehabilitation and other government interventions.

But it soon became synonymous with the spate of killings targeting drug suspects, who were shot dead either in police operations or vigilante-style attacks. The fatalities included those who had already surrendered under Tokhang.

 ‘Presumption of regularity’

The petitioners were represented by the Roque & Butuyan Law Offices, led by Joel Ruiz Butuyan.

Romel Bagares, one of their lawyers, said the petition asked the court to order police to stop threatening witnesses.

More than 7,000 drug suspects have been killed since President Duterte took office and ordered the crackdown, alarming human rights group and Western governments.

Reached for comment, Eleazar, the QCPD director, said antidrug operations will continue in the city since “the presumption is that these operations were all done with regularity.”

“This should not hinder the efforts of the PNP. Our focus should not be redirected,” Eleazar said. “We base our operations on reports of operatives. I wasn’t there, so whatever information I receive, there is a presumption of regularity.”

The official said the QCPD would cooperate and comply with directives coming from the SC on the matter.

But Eleazar said the August 2016 raid cited may be a legitimate police operation and not related to Tokhang. The latter, he stressed, is an antidrug program involving several government agencies, not just the PNP.

“Unfortunately, Tokhang is used as an umbrella term for all operations under the drug war. But it is not a police operation per se but an operation done with the barangay to ask illegal drug users to mend their ways,” he said. —WITH A REPORT FROM AP/rga