Manila police to probe operation caught on video

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 1:55 p.m.) — The Manila Police District will investigate a video of police officers conducting a raid and shooting three men in broad daylight.

"We will conduct an in-depth investigation regarding the said incident but, of course, due process and presumption of regularity in the conduct of the police operational procedures will be followed," Superintendent Erwin Magarejo told Philstar.com in a text message.

Magarejo added: "If evidence warrants against those personnel involved, we will file the necessary charges against them."

On November 27, Reuters released an investigative report detailing an alleged drug operation carried out by members of the Manila police in Barangay 19 in Manila.

The media outfit released security camera footage showing several police men in the morning of October 11, 2017.

The cops, some in plain clothes, were wearing protective vests and holding firearms. After clearing the alley, the were seen shooting at Rolando Campo, an alleged drug trader.

The drug operation was carried out a day after President Rodrigo Duterte took the drug war off the hands of the Philippine National Police.

He issued a memorandum designating the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency as the sole government body to carry out the government's bloody drug war.

Senior Superintendent Joel Napoleon Coronel, Manila Police District chief, said later Tuesday that the order to desist from anti-drug operations was only received on October 14, when the national headquarters issued a directive.

PNP Chief Bato dela Rosa and MPD Chief Joel Coronel on the Reuters investigative piece were Manila police were seen shooting 3 men at broad daylight in Manila. @PhilstarNews pic.twitter.com/Jxd1TwlnLy

— Kristine Patag (@kristinepatag) November 28, 2017

But more than a month later, Duterte said that the police might once again be tapped to lead the campaign to rid the country of drugs.

Magarejo added: "The MPD leadership under Police Senior Superintendent Joel Napoleon Coronel assured our constituents that we will always protect, respect, and fulfill our human rights obligation."

Coronel, in a chance interview at the Supreme Court, said that despite the existence of the video footage there was "no indication that there's irregularity or impropriety even in the police operation."

He said that the cameras were "located more than 100 meters away from the actual shootout" and that the report is "inconclusive, at the very least."

He added the case has been referred to the police Internal Affairs Service, which, he has been assured, will conduct a "thorough and, definitely impartial, deeper investigation into the matter."

According to police data, close to 4,000 people have died in operations against drugs. They said in October that they had tallied 6,220 drug-related deaths but human rights groups put the number of deaths at a staggering 12,000.

Duterte's bloody drug war is currently facing a petition challenging its constitutionality at the Supreme Court.

READ: SC tackles drug war: Were rights violated?

The 15-member court, led by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, is hearing through oral arguments the consolidated petitions filed by two groups of kin of drug war victims.

Heads of drug war agencies, including Director General Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, chief of PNP, is expected to face the justices today, at 2:00 p.m.

Dela Rosa, for his part, told reporters stop always looking for lapses in the PNP.