IN THE KNOW: Harra Kazuo

Harra Kazuo, who lost her loved ones to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, testified in August before the Senate committee on justice and human rights investigating allegations of extrajudicial killings.

Kazuo, 26, who gave emotional and detailed accounts of the suspicious deaths of her partner, Jaypee Bertes, and his father Renato, was among the first witnesses lined up by Sen. Leila de Lima, who then chaired the Senate panel before she was ousted in September.

The torture and death of the two men  on July 7, after their arrest the night before in their house in Pasay City, is one of the mysterious drug-related killings since President Duterte’s war on drugs began.

Kazuo, who was 7 months pregnant then, said three policemen came to their house searching for drugs. The family at the time was already preparing for her partner’s surrender for fear that he would end up dead, she said.

She tearfully said she was even suspected of hiding drugs in her 2-year-old daughter’s underwear and that policemen shoved her despite her condition.

Kazuo admitted that her partner both sold and did drugs, while the father also used the illegal substance. She said her boyfriend, a former driver, just got into the trade in May last year to earn enough to get through the day.

The father and son were beaten and taken to the Pasay City Police Station 4. Kazuo visited the two twice, the last at 10 a.m., when her partner, unable to stand properly because of injuries, pleaded to her behind bars: “Have me examined by a doctor.”

When she came back around 4:15 p.m., they were gone. Father and son died while in police custody, allegedly after trying to grab a pistol from one of the arresting officers. —INQUIRER RESEARCH

Source: Inquirer Archives