Three drug suspects who had earlier surrendered to barangay officials under the “Oplan Tokhang” program were killed in Makati City shortly after midnight Tuesday.
A witness said four men dressed in police uniforms shot Noriel Camposano and his neighbors Reynante Gutierrez and Roberto Tuso as they were talking outside their houses on Sunrise Street in Barangay La Paz.
The victims died on the spot as the four gunmen fled on two motorcycles.
Case investigator PO2 John Marlou Garcia said that Camposano, Gutierrez and Tuso were drug users who had earlier surrendered to barangay officials.
Gutierrez had just been released from jail on illegal gambling charges, Garcia added.
A witness who asked not to be identified described the gunmen as dressed in police uniforms.
Gunmen ‘tall, muscular’
“They were wearing blue, those used by police. They were tall and had muscular bodies,” he said.
“I thought they would just scare them but one of them fired at [Gutierrez]. When the two others ran away, they were chased and also shot,” he added.
Scene of the Crime Operatives recovered at least 16 shells from a 9mm firearm.
The Makati police chief, Senior Supt. Jerry Umayao, however, denied that the gunmen were his men. He also said that there were no operations conducted by the police in La Paz that night except for “regular police patrolling.”
He added that the witness may have just been “riding on the bandwagon of public outrage” following reports that policemen were involved in the killings of teenagers Kian Loyd delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz in Caloocan City.
“It’s hard to believe that my men in uniform would just shoot three people. Makati streets are full of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras,” he added.
Barangay La Paz chair Ferdinand Concepcion, however, said the two CCTV cameras in the area stopped working before the shooting happened.
Wrong button
Two watchmen on duty “may have pressed the wrong button,” causing the CCTV cameras to stop recording, he explained. He said he would have both suspended.
According to Concepcion, the wife of Gutierrez told him that a Manila policeman had apprehended her husband last Sunday for being “maangas (cocky).”
The policeman reportedly warned Gutierrez, “Get yourself together if you don’t want to die.”