De Lima to call probe on ‘Bangkay sa Bangka’ modus

Sen. Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Detained Senator Leila de Lima condemned “Bangkay sa Bangka” modus and said she would spearhead a Senate investigation into the “practice of desecrating bodies.”

According to De Lima, “Bangkay sa Bangka” is a practice in which fishermen, under the order of the police, dump cadavers of suspected drug users and peddlers in Manila Bay. Sometimes they put weights on the bodies so it would not float.

She was referring to an online story by Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based news agency, that claimed that some policemen order fishermen to dump bodies in the bay.

“Kailan lang, mayroon ding naiulat na ginagamit ang mga ospital para itago ang mga pagpatay. Ngayon naman, ang isa pang modus: ‘bangkay sa bangka,’” (Just recently, there were reports that hospitals are being used to conceal murders. Now, another modus surfaces: ‘bodies in boats) De Lima said in a statement on Saturday entitled “Dispatch from Crame No. 128.”

De Lima said she also received reports similar to the Al Jazeera story exposing such practice.

She explained that this is the same pattern of killings that self-confessed Davao Death Squad (DDS) hitman Edgar Matobato alleged in a Senate inquiry last year. According to his testimony, they dumped bodies not just in the Laud and Ma-a quarries in Davao City but also in the waters of nearby Samal Island.

A Senate investigation has discredited Matobato and his claims and even recommended the filing of perjury charges against De Lima’s witness.

READ: No proof against Duterte; perjury, murder raps eyed vs Matobato

“In his second SONA, Duterte vowed to continue his regime’s unrelenting War on Drugs. Katumbas ito ng pagpapatuloy ng walang habas na patayan at karahasan ng DDS sa Davao noon, na ginagawa na rin ngayon sa buong Pilipinas. Nasaan ang konsensya niyo, Ginoong Pangulo? (This is tantamount to the unabated killings and violence perpetrated by DDS before that is now implemented nationwide. Where is your conscience, Mr. President?)” De Lima asked.

She said “this is clearly part of President Duterte’s promise that he ‘will kill drug pushers and do-nothings, dump them in Manila Bay and fatten all the fish there.’”

“This also signals a new policy of the police: getting rid of bodies to get away with murder,” said the senator, citing the murder case of South Koream businessman Jee Ick Joo, who was abducted and later found dead inside Camp Crame. His body was cremated and his ashes flushed down the toilet.

De Lima said she would file a resolution to investigate the “deplorable practice” of “bangkay sa bangka” to “put an end to these brazen acts of killings and desecrating bodies.”/rga