Killing drug suspects

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

Melandrew Velascoa, former correspondent of the Manila Bulletin is asking for justice for his grandson, 20-year-old a graduating student Roman Clifford F. Manaois – who was killed when unidentified gunmen recently attacked a known drug pusher in Dagupan City.

Velasco posted on his Facebook account five hours before President Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday his grief over the killing of his grandson whom he calls “Oman.”

“I came home to pay my respects to my 20-year-old relative grandson Roman Clifford “OMAN” Fernandez Manaois who was mercilessly killed at 10 p.m. Tuesday on July 19, 2016.

His alleged crime: suspected drug user,” Velasco’s post read.

Velasco said Oman was about to graduate from a seaman’s course this month and due for deployment in November as service crew in Dubai, following another training module from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). He described Oman as “a good son, a former sacristan and had big dreams for himself and his family.”

“His grandparents, Manuel and Leonarda whom we fondly call “Ate Leoning,” just arrived last July 17 from Oakland, California for a family vacation,” reporter Liezle Basa Inigo quoted Velasco as saying.

Velasco said it was a tragic experience for the vacationing grandparents to experience such a painful death in the family, especially since Oman has been taking care of them since their arrival and had been doing little errands for them.

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Before the incident, he said Oman just finished serving food to his “Lola Leoning,” who is now half blind at age 71.

Velasco narrated Oman was invited by a tricycle driver-friend named Marvin “Moymoy” de Vera to go to “kaleskesan,” (a famous native fare in Bangus City featuring beef innards to include soup No. 5) in the old Galvan Market.

“On their way to buy kaleskes, a guy named Zaldy Abalos hitched a ride as any ordinary passenger would do at the city limit (between Dagupan City and Binmaley). Zaldy requested to be alighted along Lucao District, DC near the Missionaries of Charities.

As Zaldy was paying his fare, two men riding in tandem a motorcycle suddenly shot at Zaldy close range then other parts of the body,” Velasco’s post read.

Then the assailants shot Oman in the back – the bullet piercing through his heart – and wanting to make sure that he was dead, shot him again in the temple, Inigo said. The trike driver Marvin was reportedly lucky enough to escape and elude the killers as he sustained a minor gash across his right leg.

What is troubling, said Velasco, is that Oman’s autopsy yielded negative for any trace of drug use. Abalos, on the other hand, was long in the Order of Battle of intelligence operatives for drug pushing.

Some residents of the city who know Oman are heartbroken that the highly-praised war on drugs – which has spilled into the streets and has so-called vigilantes taking the law into their own hands – can claim the life of innocent people.

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Oman is just one among the “innocent” casualties as the government steps up its war against illegal drugs. Despite the scores of deaths of alleged drug users or pushers, no one could pinpoint who are doing the killings. In Cordillera, police records bared 18 suspected drug users or pushers have already been killed the past two weeks.

Now, sectors which include the Communist Party of the Philippines are demanding a more thorough shakeup and reorganization of top echelons of the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines and other agencies for the Duterte government's war against drugs to have a chance at success.

“The police and military organization and officers are so mired in drugs and the drug trade. In naming five generals of the PNP as protectors of the drug traffickers, Duterte has only very slightly scratched the surface of the criminal drug syndicate that is so deeply entrenched in the PNP, as well as the AFP, the PDEA, the NBI, DILG and other bureaucratic agencies,” the CPP said in a statement.

The Filipino people know very well the PNP and AFP are so deeply involved in drug trafficking, as well as in other forms of organized crime, from the precinct level up. It is widely known that police station commanders and local police officers are in cahoots with, or are themselves, handlers of those who operate the illegal drug trade in their localities.”

“There is now a proliferation of so-called "shabu tiangge" spots where

methamphetamine are retailed in small amounts. These are operated openly in communities with the full knowledge of local police officers and their cohorts among barangay (village) officials.

For many years, police stations regularly carry out so-called community raids to fulfill their quota of anti-drug operations. These are carried out as a media spectacle. Police operatives clamp down on small-fry pushers and unfortunate victim drug users. Often, police operations are carried out to eliminate rival drug syndicates or liquidate police assets.

“These mostly serve to camouflage the continuing operations of drug syndicates and make the police appear to be doing their jobs.

The nationwide police offensive over the past month has resulted in scores of suspected drug criminals being killed. That the raids are now being carried out on a daily basis against drug dens and pushers in the communities indicate that the police and local government officials have long had detailed knowledge of the operations of these drug syndicates.”

Such raids and offensives at the community level, the CPP said, however, will not substantially hurt operations of large drug syndicates that operate at provincial and regional levels. These raids will, at most, temporary derail their operations. With police, military and bureaucratic protection at the provincial and regional levels, these drug syndicates can easily reestablish their illegal substance manufacturing and distribution networks in a short period of time.

“The intensified drug raids have been carried out by some police units with all-out violence and utter disregard for due process. Several scores of suspected street-level drug pushers have been unnecessarily subjected to extreme violence.  A number of suspects already under police custody have been summarily executed in an apparent liquidation spree of witnesses who can potentially expose police involvement in drug trafficking operations.

Thousands of drug users have voluntary surrendered out of fear that they too will be subjected to police violence and summary execution. The challenge is for the Duterte government to build enough rehabilitation facilities to help them overcome their addiction. The bigger challenge, however, is to generate millions of jobs in order to tap the productive potentials of the currently idle labor force.

“The violent anti-drug raids cum summary executions which gained momentum even prior to Duterte's assumption into office are not hurting much the top echelons of the drug syndicates. These can even have the negative effect of discrediting the anti-drug campaign as due process and human rights are patently violated. It is bound to be challenged legally, morally and politically.”

“The people are increasingly becoming restless that the anti-drug campaign has unleashed unmitigated violence mainly against the small users and pushers, in contrast to the accommodation and leniency given police generals accused by Duterte as protectors and part of the drug syndicate,” the CPP said.