Court finds 4 drug war cops guilty of homicide in Duterte’s drug war
LEMERY, Batangas — Four police officers were found guilty on Tuesday, June 18, after killing a father and son during the drug war operations under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The defendants were all sentenced to up to 10 years in prison after they shot the two victims dead at a Manila slum community during an anti-drug operation in 2016.
The cops involved in this case are the following:
• Police Master Sergeant Virgilio Cervantes
• Police Corporal Arnel de Guzman
• Police Corporal Johnston Alacre
• Police Corporal Artemio Saguros Jr.
The punishment was based on the written verdict of Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Ma. Rowena Violago Alejandria that was read during the court trial.
“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 in her verdict.
Luis Bonifacio, 45, and his 19-year-old son Gabriel Bonifacio were killed on the scene.
Thousands of drug suspects were killed by police and unidentified gunmen during the war on drugs.
These extrajudicial killings became the subject of the investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
However, in 2019, Duterte pulled the country out of the ICC.
Only cases prior to that year are covered by the scope of the said probe.
Mary Ann Domingo, Bonifacio’s partner, cried on her son’s shoulder as they listened to the verdict on two counts of homicide against the four officers.
Domingo later said in an interview that after the trial, she felt that the ruling showed that justice still exists.
“I hope these [convictions] will continue not just for me but for the other victims of extrajudicial killings,” she added.
Court also ordered officers who were found guilty to pay ₱400,000 each in damages to the victims’ relatives.
The family said that more than a dozen police officers arrived and allegedly took part in nighttime raid at the slum community.
The defendants pleaded self-defense saying that victims were armed and had shot at them.
The family insisted that the two were not involved in drugs and were unarmed when the police arrived at the scene.
But state prosecutors chose the lesser charge of homicide, instead of murder, against the four officers.
“We are treating this as a partial victory because in all honesty, the case we filed against these policemen was murder and not homicide,” Atty. Julian Oliva, the Domingo family lawyer, said.
Oliva added that there is treachery and use of superior force in the case.
The two variables are a qualifying circumstance to rule out a case of murder.
Duterte had openly ordered the police to shoot dead those suspects during the drug war.
The order applies if armed forces believe that their lives are in danger.
This caused more than 6,000 deaths of drug suspects in the country, who have been killed by the police and unknown gunmen.
Some of them have no proof that they were associated with drugs.
Due to the current Philippine Judicial System, lawyers said that most victims’ families are too scared to follow up and file a case.
Currently, President Ferdinand Marcos is refusing to cooperate with the ICC saying that the country has a working judicial system.