Slow road to justice for Baguio drug war victim

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BAGUIO CITY—It had been a “struggle” to bring the 2016 drug war killing of seaman Ryan Dave Almora to court, which finally led to the conviction of a police colonel nine years after his death, a family member said on Monday.

Almora was listed as a fatality in one of the earlier antidrug operations of the police called “tokhang,” having “fought back” (“nanlaban”) when he was targeted in a drug bust and was shot three times in the chest on July 28, 2016, by a police official who claimed “self-defense.”

But Police Col. Dante Lubos’ arguments did not persuade Baguio Regional Trial Court Judge Rufus Malecdan Jr. of Branch 60, who convicted him of homicide on Aug. 22.

“It appears that Almora was in a defenseless position when he was shot and killed… [supporting the prosecutors’ assertion] that Almora did not and could not have committed an unlawful aggression prior to him being shot by Lubos,” the court decision read.

Lubos’ lawyer, Francis Camtugan II, has elevated the case to the Court of Appeals. In an Aug. 27 notice to the court, Camtugan’s law office informed Malecdan that it had appealed Lubos’ conviction “on the ground that the conclusion and findings are contrary to law, jurisprudence and established evidence.” The notice did not provide further details.

First in north Luzon

The Baguio trial was one of the few extrajudicial killings that resulted in the convictions of police officers and the first in north Luzon, one of Almora’s relatives said in an Inquirer interview on Monday.

But Lubos was actually one of 90 police officers whom the family had intended to prosecute, said the family’s lawyer, Francisca Claver.

The case suffered its initial setback when prosecutors in Baguio and later Abra inhibited from the case, leading to the appointment of Laoag City prosecutors to handle the case. Fear also prevented relatives and friends from helping out during that period, leading to delays and legal wrangling until only Lubos was left to stand trial, said one of Almora’s close family members.

“We have no idea what life has been like for Ryan since he returned to the family house in Baguio after taking time off from work in 2012. But I was in Manila when I learned about his death,” the relative shared.

Almora was buried in Kalinga province on Aug. 3, 2016, and the family finally set foot inside the house two days later because it had been declared a crime scene, said the family member, who asked not to be named for security reasons.

The drug war killings began to draw attention in 2016 just as then President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office. A few more drug suspects were killed in Baguio but these were not given media prominence, the family member said.

Only a small group of friends and relatives went out to commiserate with the family during Almora’s wake, held near a police station. “Friends and family were scared due to the political climate [then],” the relative said.

“The policemen I spoke to always claimed they were not at the drug bust and only showed up at the crime scene as a responder,” the family member said.

NBI probe

The Almora family filed the first murder complaint against units of the BCPO at the National Bureau of Investigation in August 2016, the source said. But an agent initially informed them the NBI would not interfere with the government’s drug-related cases based on internal communications, she said.

The family approached an NBI Cordillera officer who designated an agent, Andrew Bascayan, to handle the complaint. But it took three years for the NBI to gather sufficient evidence to file the case in 2019, the source said.