Police colonel convicted for 2016 drug war slay
A police colonel has been sentenced to up to 14 years in prison for killing a drug suspect in Baguio City on July 28, 2016—barely a month after then President Rodrigo Duterte took office and launched his war on drugs.
In a 39-page decision obtained by the Inquirer, the Baguio City Regional Trial Court Branch 60 found Police Col. Dante Lubos guilty of homicide over the death of Ryan Dave Almora during a supposed drug bust inside the victim’s house.
At the time, Lubos headed the Central Intelligence Unit of the Baguio City police. He is currently the Regional Headquarters Support Unit chief of Police Regional Office 3.
The ruling was handed down on Aug. 22, just weeks before Duterte’s scheduled confirmation of charges at the International Criminal Court, where he is accused of crimes against humanity over his drug crackdown that killed at least 6,000 Filipinos.
Presiding Judge Rufus Gayo Malecdan Jr. sentenced Lubos to 10 to 14 years in prison and ordered him to pay Almora’s family about P1.45 million in damages, lawyer’s fees and civil indemnity.
From murder to homicide
In his ruling, the judge dispelled the “nanlaban” (fought back) defense often used by police officers at the height of the drug war, saying that Almora’s injuries did “not indicate that he was in a position to fight back.”
The complaint against Lubos was initially for murder and theft and was filed three years after the incident on Aug. 23, 2019, before the Baguio City Prosecutor’s Office.
The charge, however, was downgraded to homicide in 2020, and while he pleaded not guilty, Lubos categorically admitted that he shot Almora during the police operation, saying it was “necessary under the circumstances and in the performance of his official duty.”
He argued that shooting the victim was needed to “preserve and protect his own life and the life of other police officers and a civilian involved in the buy-bust operation.”
But his admission, alongside the testimonial and documentary evidence presented by the prosecution, “overwhelmingly established beyond doubt that accused Lubos shot and killed Almora,” the court said.
A key testimony in the case came from Dr. Jaime Leal, a retired medical officer of the Baguio City Police’s Crime Laboratory who was part of the team that processed the evidence at the crime scene.
Citing the medicolegal findings and Leal’s opinion, the court said Almora was shot three times—with the first bullet hitting his abdomen, lacerating his large intestine and right kidney, and fracturing the lumbar vertebra where the bullet eventually lodged itself.
Victim defenseless
The victim then fell to the ground and was lying on his back when another bullet hit his right chest.
The trajectory of the second gunshot wound indicates the shooter was located above Almora, the court said.
“Based on the foregoing expert opinion of Dr. Leal, it appears that Almora was in a defenseless position when he was shot and killed. This fact strongly supports the prosecution’s position that Almora did not and could not have committed an unlawful aggression prior to him being shot by Lubos,” the court added.
Its observation was further corroborated by the testimony of Andrew Bacayan, the National Bureau of Investigation agent assigned to the case, who said there was an indication the victim was “on his knees pleading for his life when he was shot” based on the trajectories of the bullets.
While the court noted the different versions of the two witnesses, it said that “one fact remains clear, Almora was in a defenseless and compromised position when he was shot and killed, contrary to the accused’s claim that Almora was firing shots at him when he (Almora) was shot by the accused.”
“Unfortunately for the accused, his self-serving testimony did not stand up to the pieces of physical evidence and expert witness testimonies of the prosecution, which strongly suggest that Almora did not fire a shot or shots at the poseur-buyer, the civilian informant, and at Lubos,” the court said.
The court also noted that Almora’s hands were negative for gunpowder nitrates based on the results of a paraffin test.
Fourth case conviction
Almora’s case is only the fourth known conviction of police officers involved in the previous administration’s bloody antidrug campaign and the first one in northern Luzon. In all three previous cases, the convicted law enforcers were members of the Caloocan City police.
In the first case, police officers Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz were accused of killing 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos in August 2017. They were found guilty nearly a year later on Nov. 29, 2018, by the Caloocan City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 125 and sentenced to reclusion perpetua without eligibility of parole.
In November 2022, a Caloocan RTC convicted Caloocan police officers Jefrey Perez and Ricky Arquilita for murder, torture and planting of evidence in the deaths of Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman.
Arquilita died of liver disease in April 2019 while still on trial while Perez was handed down a sentence of two life terms.
In June 2024, the Caloocan City RTC Branch 121 found Police Master Sgt. Virgilio Cervantes and Corporals Arnel de Guzman, Johnston Alacre and Artemio Saguros Jr. guilty of homicide for the deaths of Luis Bonifacio and his son Gabriel in 2016.
They were each sentenced to up to 10 years imprisonment and ordered to jointly pay the victims’ heirs P400,000 in actual, civil indemnity, moral and temperate damages. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
