Tondo drug raid probe: No witness, no case

With no witnesses coming forward, the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service (PNP-IAS) is having a difficulty building up a case against six Manila policemen who conducted an antidrug raid in Tondo that resulted in the death of three men.

According to PNP-IAS inspector general Alfegar Triambulo, investigators have not yet found evidence that would dispute the presumption of regularity in the Oct. 11 operation conducted by the team from the Manila Police District’s Moriones station.

Reuters obtained security camera footage of the killings in Barangay 19, which it published on Nov. 28, saying in a special report that the footage cast doubt on the official police accounts of the killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

Triambulo said the investigators have been going to the location of the raid cited by Reuters to seek out witnesses, but “no one has come forward so far to speak out about the antiillegal drug raid.”

The PNP-IAS has asked Reuters for the names of the persons interviewed for its report, he said, but the international news agency “has not yet replied to our letter.”

Even the families of the three men who were killed — Rolando Campo, 60; Sherwin Bitas, 34; and Ronnie Cerbito, 18 — have yet to file a complaint against the MPD officers involved, Triambulo noted.

“The purpose of our motu proprio investigation is to determine if there is probable cause to initiate administrative proceedings against the policemen involved in the raid,” he explained.