MANILA (UCAN): Four policemen were found guilty of killing a father and son, court officials said, in a rare case of Philippine law enforcement officers being prosecuted for taking part in the deadly drug war of former president, Rodrigo Duterte.
The low-ranking officers were all sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for the shooting deaths of the two victims at a Manila slum during an anti-drug police operation in 2016, Manila regional trial court judge, Rowena Alejandria, said in her written verdict that was read in court on June 18.
Virgilio Cervantes, Arnel de Guzman, Johnston Alacre and Artemio Saguros, who attended the court session wearing their blue police uniforms, were also ordered to pay 400,000 pesos [US$6,820] each in damages to the victims’ heirs. They were marched out of the courtroom without speaking to reporters.
“It must be worthy to note that the accused themselves did not deny their presence and participation in the police operation conducted, the same event where the victims Luis and Gabriel were killed,” Alejandria wrote.
Luis Bonifacio was 45-years-old and his son Gabriel Bonifacio was 19-years-old when they were killed.
It must be worthy to note that the accused themselves did not deny their presence and participation in the police operation conducted, the same event where the victims Luis and Gabriel were killed
Rowena Alejandria
Thousands of drug suspects were killed by police and unknown gunmen in a campaign that became the centerpiece of Duterte’s 2016 to 2022 presidency, a crackdown that critics described as state-sponsored extrajudicial killings and is now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court [ICC].
Luis Bonifacio’s partner, Mary Ann Domingo, cried on her son’s shoulder as they listened to the verdict on two counts of homicide each being read at the cramped northern Manila courtroom. She later told reporters that she felt the ruling showed “justice still exists.”
She added, “I hope these [convictions] will continue not just for me but for the other victims of extrajudicial killings.”
The defendants pleaded self-defense, alleging the suspects were armed and had shot at them.
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State prosecutors went with the lesser charge of homicide against only four officers, instead of murder, which involves deliberate intent to kill and which carries a heavier penalty.
The family has alleged that more than a dozen police officers took part in the nighttime raid at the northern Manila slum community. They insisted the two victims were not involved in drugs and were unarmed when police opened fire.
I hope these [convictions] will continue not just for me but for the other victims of extrajudicial killings.
Mary Ann Domingo
“We are treating this as a partial victory because, in all honesty, the case we filed against these policemen was murder and not homicide,” the Domingo family lawyer, Julian Oliva, said.
Police said the crackdown left more than 6,000 people dead, but rights groups estimate tens of thousands of mostly poor men were killed by officers and vigilantes, even without proof they were linked to drugs.
Duterte had openly ordered police to shoot dead suspects during anti-drug operations if they believed their lives were in danger.
While the crackdown has been widely condemned and sparked an international investigation, only five other policemen have been convicted for killing drug suspects.
Three Manila police officers were convicted in 2018 of murdering a 17-year-old boy in 2017. Two other narcotics police officers were found guilty last year for separate killings in 2016 and 2017, the latter victim a South Korean businessman.
Lawyers say most families are too scared to go after their relatives’ killers or do not have the money or time to pursue a case in the Philippines’ creaky judicial system.
“It shows how the impunity is taking place in our country,” Oliva said.
The Philippine drug crackdown is being investigated by the ICC, which said in 2021 that it appeared “a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy.”
