Ombudsman wants homicide charges vs 4 cops over killing of father, son in 'drug war' ops
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman affirmed its earlier resolution that found probable cause to charge for two counts of homicide four Caloocan cops in the killing of father and son Luis and Gabriel Bonifacio in September 2016.
In a March 8 resolution, the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices junked the motion for reconsideration filed by Mary Ann Domingo, family of the victims.
Luis and Gabriel were killed in a September 15, 2016 operation in their residence in Caloocan. Police claimed they were conducting a buy-bust operation on Luis, and the father and son fought back, prompting them to fire at them.
Domingo wanted the following Caloocan cops charged with murder, but the Ombudsman only found probable cause to charge them with homicide:
- P/MSgt. Virgilio Cervantes
- P/Cpl. Arnel De Guzman
- P/Cpl. Johnston Alacre
- P/Cpl. Artemio Saguros Jr.
The Ombudsman junked Domingo’s appeal, saying that the arguments in the motion for reconsideration were already passed upon in the earlier adjudication of the case. It added that the complainant “miserably failed to specify in what aspect of the law or the facts that this Office has erred in coming up with the assailed Joint Resolution.”
Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer Benedict Byron Villalba, with concurrence from Acting Director Yvette Marie Evaristo affirmed his earlier resolution dated January 15.
The case and indictment
According to Domingo’s narration, as stated in the January resolution, cops barged in their house around 12:30 a.m. of Sept. 15, 2016. She and her other kids were hauled outside the house but she returned to their second floor where she found her husband on his knees while her son was begging the cops to not hurt his father.
She later heard gunshots from their house. When she tried to go back to their house, cops told her “not to get involved because the situation is risky.” But she was told her husband was already dead while Gabriel was alive but brought to hospital. She went to the MCU Hospital at 2 am where she learned her husband and son died due to multiple gunshot wounds.
The cops tagged as respondents maintained that they were conducting a buy-bust operation against Luis on the night he and his son were killed.
Based on the police narrative, Gabriel alerted his father that the buyer is a police asset. The two ran up to their house, took their firearms and shot the cops who were unarmed at the time.
Back-up officers arrived and their call for cease firing supposedly went unheeded, “thus they had no other option but to use reasonable force to repel the aggression and defend themselves,” the court document read.
In resolving the complaint, the Ombudsman stressed that by invoking self-defense as justifying circumstance, the cops must prove it to the satisfaction of the court.
“In the present case, other than their self-serving testimony, respondents P/MSgt. Cervantes et al failed to corroborate their claim of self-defense with convincing evidence,” the Ombudsman said.
The Ombudsman also noted that for cops’ claim of exchange of gunfire happened, there must be slug marks in the area.
“However, it is mindboggling that no photograph of any slug mark was taken, particularly from the vicinity where said police officers took cover, and proffered. Such omission casts a heavy doubt on the veracity of their claim that they were fired upon by Luis and Gabriel. In consequence, their theory of self-defense is put into question,” the resolution further read.
It also pointed out that the number of wounds in vital parts of the victims’ bodies negates their “pretensions at self-defense,” but indicates an effort to kill.
It added that the cops’ claim of justifying circumstance is best passed upon on full trial.
Duterte’s ‘drug war’
This indictment comes as victims of the bloody “drug war” are appealing to outgoing International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to launch an investigation into alleged crimes of humanity committed by President Rodrigo Duterte and his men.
RELATED: With a new ICC prosecutor, lawyers of 'drug war' victims kin hope for investigation into Duterte
The Department of Justice is leading a review of the police “drug war” operations that resulted in deaths, and it has so far received 52 administrative cases investigated by PNP’s Internal Affairs Service and 107 case files from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
In a statement from Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra delivered for the diplomatic community through the Department of Foreign Affairs, he added that the DOJ is monitoring 87 criminal cases lodged against over a hundred law enforcers arising from anti-narcotics operations.
While rights groups noted that the DOJ gaining access to PNP’s case files may be a breakthrough, watchdogs noted that the number of cases is too small compared to the more than 6,000 killings linked to the bloody “drug war.”
Sectoral group Rise Up and families of “drug war” victims, in their fourth supplemental communication before the ICC, stressed that “to date, there has been no responsive action, particularly, prosecution efforts from either the Office of the President, DOJ or the PNP.”
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