Parañaque shootout was legitimate

MANILA, Philippines - Officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday maintained that a shootout with robbery suspects in Parañaque City last December, in which civilians were killed, was a legitimate operation.

Three generals faced a Department of Justice (DOJ) panel investigating a multiple murder complaint filed by Lilian de Vera, who lost her husband, Alfonso, and daughter, Lia Allana, during the shootout.

Director Leopoldo Bataoil, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations – Northern Luzon; Chief Superintendent Leocadio Santiago Jr., head of the PNP Special Action Force (SAF); and Chief Superintendent Perfecto Palad, head of the PNP Highway Patrol Group (HPG) claimed that while there were innocent civilians who were killed in the crossfire, policemen involved in the operation should not be held liable since they just did their duty.

“Our police force was also a victim in that incident,” Bataoil said, citing the case of PO2 Nickson Vinasoy, who was among those killed during the encounter.

Bataoil also stressed that the PNP is already determining if there were lapses committed by SAF and HPG personnel during the encounter and has already submitted to the investigation of the Commission on Human Rights and National Police Commission.

“We also continue to reach out to the civilian victims. In the case of one of them, Ronaldo Eusebio, who was a Skyway employee, the PNP has been giving educational and financial support to his children,” he said.

The general, who went to the area of the shootout on Dec. 5 last year as then chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, said the PNP would just allow the DOJ to resolve the complaint filed by De Vera last July 28.

Apart from the three generals, also named respondents in the complaint were Superintendent Jonathan Calixto, Chief Insp. Hermogenes Cabe, Senior Insp. Abraham Abayari, Insp. Erikson Roranes, Insp. Ludivico Cordova, PO1 James Yodong, PO1 Allan Apil, PO1 Efren Angcuan, PO1 Lloyd Bulayungan, PO1 Nemesio Gano, PO3 Hagar Torres, PO3 Jericho Otadoy, PO3 Guilbert Lopez, PO3 Felix Base, PO3 Eugene Papat-ew, PO3 Policarpio Jose Jr., and PO1 Sherwin Maybanting, all members of PNP-SAF.

Also charged were Superintendent Eleuterio Gutierrez Jr., Chief Insp. Lawrence Cajipe, Chief Insp. Joel Mendoza, Insp. Gerardo Balatucan, PO3 Jolito Mamanao, Jr., PO3 Fernando Rey Gapuz, PO2 Eduardo Blanco, PO2 Edwin Santos, PO1 Josil Rey Lucena.

They all submitted their counter-affidavits before the DOJ fiscals yesterday. The DOJ set the deadline for De Vera to submit her reply on Sept. 7.

The CHR ruled there were lapses in the operation conducted by the police.

In her complaint, De Vera accused police officials and operatives of “violating the law when they murdered my husband and daughter in the most inhuman, savage, and pitiless way.”

She said her husband and daughter were in their Isuzu Crosswind when they were intercepted by the policemen inside the United Parañaque Subdivision IV in Sucat district last Dec. 5.

De Vera said police were cordoning off the area in an attempt to block a group of robbers who engaged policemen in a running gunbattle on Sampaguita Avenue and West Service Road.

The police, according to De Vera, might have mistaken their van for one of the get­away cars of the suspects.

She said based on the affidavits of her witnesses, her husband and daughter were inside their vehicle when several police officers wearing Regional Special Action Force (RSAF) vests fired at them.

Her husband, the witnesses said, went out of the vehicle, moved to the front passenger side where Lia was sitting, and carried her out to safety as she was bleeding at that time.

The respondents, however, pursued Alfonso and shot him in the head while he was trying to bring Lia to a safer place, according to De Vera. Lia expired at the United Parañaque Hospital while her husband died on the spot.

“They [policemen] were never provoked by my husband nor by my young, innocent, and defenseless daughter Lia,” she said, accusing the police of “treachery” since her husband and child were shot from behind.

De Vera said Bataoil, Santiago, and Palad, as the highest ranking police officers involved in the supposed operation, cannot deny their liability for clear criminal acts committed by them and their men.