‘Tokhang’ survivor sues four policemen for murder

Efren Morillo, the lone survivor of a bloody drug raid in Quezon City, has filed a criminal complaint against four policemen and their informants in yet another legal challenge against the government’s controversial campaign.

Morillo filed a complaint for murder, frustrated murder, robbery, and planting of drugs and firearms before the Office of the Ombudsman. This comes a month after he became the first victim of Oplan Tokhang to petition the Supreme Court for protection under the writ of amparo.

READ: Survivor, victims’ kin question drug war in Supreme court

The filing of the complaint also comes in the wake of the government’s pronouncements that Oplan Tokhang, which has been criticized for violating the right to due process, will soon be revived after it was halted only in January.

READ: Duterte to call police back to war on drugs

Named respondents were Police Senior Inspector Emil Garcia, Police Officer 3 Allan Formilleza, Police Officer 1 (PO1) James Aggarao, and PO1 Melchor Navisaga, who were formerly detailed with the Quezon City Police District Station 6.

Also sued were their purported informants Lea Barcelona, Mary Joy Ralo, Lorie Barcelona, and Richard Andan alias “Manok.”

The complaint arose from the Tokhang operation at Group 9, Area B, Payatas, Quezon City on August 21, 2016, where the policemen allegedly shot four companions “execution-style.” Despite being shot, Morillo was miraculously able to escape after playing dead.

Autopsies would indicate that some of the dead were possibly kneeling or lying down when they were shot point-blank. Besides the alleged killings and planting of evidence, informant “Manok” even stole jewelry and other items from the house of the widow of Morillo’s friend, Marcelo “Nonoy” Daa Jr.

Morillo claimed that he and his friends were only playing pool at 3 o’clock in the afternoon when armed men carried out a raid and shot them when they refused to admit to owning the silver foil and toy gun “found” at the scene.

“From what I have narrated, it is clear that we were not using shabu but merely playing pool but we were arrested and forced to admit that we own the plastic sachet with white substance inside that they were holding,” the affidavit read.

Morillo specifically named Formilleza as the policeman who shot him and his friend when they protested their innocence. He was hit in the chest area but did not lose consciousness right away.

“I saw him fire two shots at Nonoy, who fell to the ground beside me and started running out of breath,” he continued. “Then he fired another shot at Nonoy. Thoroughly frightened that I might be shot again, I closed my eyes and played dead.”

While he could recognize Formilleza’s face, Morillo said he only later knew of the policemen’s identities when they filed a complaint against him before the city prosecutor for direct assault against an agent of a person in authority by resisting arrest during the Tokhang operation.

The policemen had even claimed in media interviews that Morillo and his companions were caught in the act of using shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and even dubbed them notorious drug suspects and holduppers.

“Nevertheless, the policemen themselves admit to shooting me and my companions. They are claiming that the shooting was in fulfillment of their duties in relation to an anti-drug operation,” the affidavit read.

“They claim that we resisted and fought back. However, these allegations are baseless and are mere fabrications.”

As was the case with the petition for amparo at the SC, the Center for International Law (Centerlaw) also assisted Morillo in filing the Ombudsman complaint.

When Morillo and the relatives of four killed suspects sought protection from the police, the government through the Office of the Solicitor-General did not contest the pleading when the case was remanded to the Court of Appeals.

The appeals court swiftly issued on Feb. 10 a permanent protection order directing the policemen’s reassignment and prohibiting them from coming within a one-kilometer radius of their homes and workplaces. It also ordered the Philippine National Police to stop implementing Oplan Tokhang against Morillo and his copetitioners, and inform them of the results of an internal investigation into the incident./rga