Undersecretary Ernesto Abella, presidential spokesperson (Malacañang file photo by ROBINSON NIÑAL JR.)
(Updated, 4:09 p.m.) Malacañang on Friday described as “isolated” the killing of a 17-year-old high school student during an anti-drug operation in Caloocan City.
The victim identified as Kian Loyd delos Santos died after he was shot during a police operation in Barangay (village) 160 in Caloocan City on Wednesday night.
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“That incident happily I think is isolated,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a Palace briefing.
But the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson later clarified that Abella meant “haply” and not “happily” as mentioned during the press briefing.
Official transcript sent by Malacañang earlier used the word “happily” but it later sent a revised version correcting it to “haply.”
Haply, an archaic word, is defined by Merriam-Webster as an adverb which means “by chance, luck or accident.”
He also assured the public that President Rodrigo Duterte would not tolerate police abuses amid the spate of drug killings in the country.
“I cannot assume what the President thinks but what we can say with confidence that those who are guilty of breaking the law, misuse or abuse will have to answer for that,” he said.
“He will defend the police in their carrying out of duties. However, he will also not tolerate any abuse and breaches of the law,” he added.
Abella’s statement came two days after President Rodrigo Duterte described the drug killings as “good.”
READ: ‘That’s good,’ says Duterte on killing of 32 Bulacan druggies
“The ones who died in Bulacan, 32, in a massive raid, that is good. We could just kill another 32 everyday, then maybe we could reduce what ails this country,” Duterte said in mix Filipino and English on Wednesday.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has said that 32 people were killed while 109 drug suspects were arrested in the simultaneous “One Time Big Time Operation” by the Bulacan police on August 15.
Aside from those in Bulacan, suspected drug personalities who were killed in Manila have reached 26 after the Manila Police District’s (MPD) “one-time, big-time” anti-drug operations on Wednesday.
Malacañang earlier vowed to conduct a “fair and impartial” investigation into the drugs killings, whom police said resisted in the anti-drug operations. IDL