CA to PNP: Submit final report on 2016 drug war killings
The Court of Appeals (CA) has directed the Philippine National Police to submit a report on its final investigation into the 2016 killing of four men in Payatas, Quezon City, among the earliest casualties of the Duterte administration’s brutal war on drugs.
In a six-page resolution dated Jan. 3, the appeals court granted the motion filed by Efren Morillo, the lone survivor of the incident, who sought a directive for the PNP to provide him and the relatives of the four men killed with copies of the final investigation report.
The CA noted that “a great deal” had transpired in the eight years since its decision granting the privilege of the writ of amparo—a legal remedy designed to protect a person’s right to life, liberty and security from threats or violations—to Morillo and his copetitioners was promulgated in 2017.
The decision specifically ordered the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management to furnish them with a copy of the investigation results regarding the deaths of Marcelo Daa Jr., Raffy Gabo, Anthony Comendo and Jessie Cule, as well as the frustrated killing of Morillo on Aug. 21, 2016.
Additional evidence
It cited recent legislative hearings, during which former President Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, then PNP chief, testified, as having revealed additional evidence on “reported irregularities and human rights violations committed under the guise of the ‘war on drugs,’” among other events related to alleged extrajudicial killings during the antinarcotics campaign.
“It is in the context of these recent developments, prompted by the petitioners’ motion, that the Court exercises its jurisdiction to monitor the implementation of its resolution of 10 February 2017,” the CA’s Special 14th Division said in the resolution penned by Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr.
The CA ordered the PNP to inform the court whether the investigation was complete and, if so, submit the final report within 10 days from notice. If not, the PNP must provide the latest reports and related documents from the past eight years within the same time frame.
Writ of amparo
The case stemmed from an Aug. 21, 2016, antidrug operation by a Quezon City Police District (QCPD) team, which, according to Morillo’s affidavit, barged into a house in Payatas and shot him and four others as they were playing billiards.
Comendo, Cule, Gabo and Daa, the house owner, were killed.
Morillo, who was hit in the chest, escaped death by rolling down a garbage heap, remaining motionless for some time, and pretending to be dead.
The Supreme Court issued a writ of amparo to Morillo and the relatives of the four men.
The CA subsequently granted the writ’s privilege, issuing a permanent protection order prohibiting four police officers—Police Senior Insp. Emil Garcia, PO3 Allan Formilleza, and Police Officers 1 James Aggarao and Melchor Navisaga of the QCPD—from coming within a kilometer radius of the petitioners’ residences and workplaces.
