Duterte says intel report on Kian as drug runner could be wrong

President Rodrigo Duterte, in an interview with the Malacañang Press Corps (MPC) at the Malago Clubhouse, Malacañang Park in Manila on August 21, 2017.
ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

The intelligence report of the Philippine National Police (PNP) indicating 17-year-old Kian Lloyd delos Santos was a drug runner could be wrong, President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday night.

“Those are just information gathered by the police and the military. It is an internal thing. Hindi mo masabi na, ‘itong intel na ito.’ Maya-maya mali iyan (You just can’t say, ‘this intel,’ later on it could be wrong),” Duterte told reporters in Malacañang.

Delos Santos was shot dead on the night of August 16, by the police in a drug operation in Caloocan City.

Northern Police District Chief Superintendent Roberto Fajardo has said that Delos Santos was a newly identified drug suspect based on latest intelligence reports.

But Duterte said police’s intelligence report has “no probative value” in court.

“So, if there is no probative value, how can you use it in court and to the people,” he said.

The chief executive in the same meeting with reporters assured the public that the police officers behind the killing Delos Santos would go to jail if proven guilty.

READ: Duterte vows to punish cops in Kian killing if proven guilty

“Should the investigation point to liabilities, my warning to all is there will be a prosecution and they have to go to jail. That I can assure you,” he said.

“If it is really rubout, they (police) have to answer for it. They have to go to jail,” he added.

The President said he would not visit the wake of Delos Santos, saying: “It is pregnant with so many presupositions.”

He added that people might interpret his visit to the wake as a chance for him to apologize to the Delos Santos family and as confirmation of the truth of the accusations against the police. JPV

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