Operatives of the entire Caloocan City police have been relieved after some of its members were suspected in the gruesome killings of three teenagers and were caught by closed-circuit television robbing a house.
The 1,200-strong Caloocan City police force will be relieved in batches and replaced, said Metro Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde. The officers will undergo 45 days of retraining, after which those facing no charges can be reassigned to other stations.
The Department of Justice has started an investigation based on the murder and torture complaint against four Caloocan policemen allegedly linked to the killing of 17-year-old student Kian Delos Santos during an antidrug raid last month. The parents of two other teenagers have also filed double murder and torture complaints against two Caloocan policemen. Last week, CCTV footage purportedly showed 13 policemen robbing a house during an alleged drug raid.
President Duterte’s crackdown on drugs, which left thousands of suspects dead, has come under renewed scrutiny after the police gunned down de los Santos. The police described him as a drug dealer who fired at officers during a raid, but his family and witnesses said the student was shot as he pleaded for his life.
