MANILA (UCAN): “Police brutality is common in the Philippines, where police officers commit serious abuses against criminal suspects with impunity,” the Human Rights Watch [HRW] said in statement on December 16. The New York-based rights watchdog noted in a report that cases of police brutality have not reached courts of law because victims thought they had no chance to take on the police force
HRW traced police impunity over civilians to the time of former president, Rodrigo Duterte, when thousands of police officers were allegedly linked to the killing of 30,000 drug suspects.
“Since the start of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in 2016, the police have been linked to thousands of extrajudicial killings during drug raids. Many other suspects have also been subjected to torture or mistreatment,” the rights group added.
The statement came after police officers beat up a theft suspect while in custody on December 9 in Maasin City in Southern Leyte, in the Visayas region.
The video showed Police Staff Sergeant Ronald Gamayon beating Gilbert Ranes with his fists along the streets of Maasin City. Another video showed three men in civilian clothes and a police officer in uniform dragging Ranes into a police vehicle.
Police brutality is common in the Philippines, where police officers commit serious abuses against criminal suspects with impunity
Human Rights Watch
Ranes died three hours later in a local hospital because of the injuries sustained from the beating.
Bystanders who witnessed the event said Ranes was dragged around like an animal.
“I feel for him. Ranes was dragged like a pig to be butchered at the slaughterhouse. There was an abuse of superior strength because there were many of them while Ranes had stopped showing resistance against any of the police officers,” one witness, Ronald Jebulan, said.
A medical doctor from the Urban-Rural Health Unit of Maasin City declared the cause of Ranes’ death to be severe head trauma.
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Investigators likewise found a hematoma and multiple abrasions on Ranes’ body.
Hector Enage, a police colonel and director of the Southern Leyte Police Provincial Office, told reporters that Gamayon was responding to complaints from neighbours that Ranes had stolen a mobile phone.
“The officer had no prior history of misconduct. We’re not sure what made him decide to inflict injury on the victim,” Enage told reporters on December 14.
He said that a criminal case is set to be filed against Gamayon in court as soon as the supporting documents and evidence are completed.
Human Rights Watch, however, doubted if the case would gain traction as the trial would begin next year.
“Filing a case is important but we know it’s not the measuring stick of justice. There has to be conviction and hopefully, the victim’s family would not settle for a compromise,” the group said.
