THE Philippine National Police will not relent on its anti-illegal drugs campaign despite three recent cases of controversial killings, two of them blamed on policemen.
PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos said PNP Chief, Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has ordered policemen to stay focused on the ongoing campaign, but also prodded them to observe legal procedures.
“The campaign against illegal drugs is on track. Our CPNP [National Police Director dela Rosa] wants the police operatives to stay focused on the job and remind them to always follow the police operational procedures,” Carlos said.
Stricter scrutiny
The government’s continuing campaign against illegal drugs, as of late, has gone under stricter scrutiny following the killings of Kian delos Santos, Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman over the past weeks.
The 17-year-old delos Santos and the 19-year-old Arnaiz were killed in August in police drug-related operations. On the other hand, the death of de Guzman, 14, is still under investigation.
Arnaiz, a resident of Cainta, Rizal, disappeared on August 17 after he went out for a snack together with de Guzman, his friend. Arnaiz’s body turned up 10 days later in a morgue in Caloocan City with gunshot wounds.
Police said Arnaiz was killed in an alleged shootout with members of the Caloocan City police along C-3 Road in the early morning of August 18 after he allegedly robbed a taxi driver.
Witnesses, however, claimed otherwise.
On the other hand, de Guzman’s body was fished out last week from a creek in Nueva Ecija, with at least 28 stab wounds. His head was also wrapped with packing tapes.
Investigation
The PNP has thrown its full support to the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) probe into the killings of Arnaiz and de Guzman, allegedly by policemen
Carlos said the 175,000-strong PNP is ready to extend the necessary assistance to the NBI in the conduct of its own inquiry.
No less than President Duterte ordered the NBI to investigate the twin killings.
“The PNP will extend all possible assistance and support to NBI in the investigation of the Arnaiz and De Guzman slay cases as ordered by PRRD [President Rodrigo R. Duterte],” Carlos said.
“This should preclude any perception of bias and undue influence by the PNP,” he added.
Carlos said it would be better if another agency would be taking lead in the investigation to avoid perception of “whitewash.”
He added the PNP leadership has ordered the activation of a special investigation task group (SITG) under the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to facilitate the coordination with the NBI.
Wrong body?
On Wednesday, de Guzman was buried in a public cemetery in Pasig, amid questions whether the body that was interred was really that of the victim.
During a news conference, PNP Deputy Director General Fernando Mendez said the DNA test on the samples taken from the body and the parents of de Guzman did not match.
The DNA testing was conducted by the PNP Crime Laboratory DNA Analysis Branch in Camp Crame.
“The male DNA profile obtained from the cotton swabbing with suspected blood taken from the crime scene is consistent with the DNA profile obtained from the standard samples [blood and buccal swabs] of the cadaver,” the Crime Laboratory stated in its conclusion.
“Based on the results obtained, the source of the DNA profile obtained from the male cadaver cannot be the biological offspring of Eduardo Gabriel y Sta. Ana and Lina de Guzman y Dagante,” it added
Eduardo and Lina are the biological parents of de Guzman, alias Kulot.
On the other hand, the parents maintained that the body was that of their boy as they pushed through with the interment.
“He is my son, we brought him up. All the identifying marks were his. He will not be released to us if he was not ours,” Eduardo said.
The father’s claims were supported by his wife.
“He is my son, he looks like his father, his face is ours. He’s our flesh and blood. We made him, I gave birth to him, I had a hard time, so he’s my son,” Lina said.
To settle the issue, the PNP and the Department of Justice agreed to conduct a second test on the body, but his parents, who are already under the care of the government’s witness protection program, protested, thus scuttling the plan.
Live-and-die campaign
Despite the controversies, the anti-illegal drugs campaign will continue and it will not even slow down as it sits at the center of the PNP programs and even by the Duterte administration as a whole.
“The war on drugs will continue, we will live and die on the war on drugs. This administration will live and die on the war on drugs, there’s no stepping back,” declared dela Rosa.
No less than Duterte has declared that the campaign will continue until the end of his term.
Owing to the severity of the drug problem, the President has even admitted that he may not be able to end the illegal-drugs problem.
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila