Scavengers 'milked' by Makati cops?

MANILA, Philippines - Police officers from Makati’s Police Station 5 are reportedly “milking” scavengers who go to an abandoned building in Barangay San Antonio, where a 13-year-old boy scavenging for scrap metal was allegedly killed by a police substation commander, scavengers said yesterday.

According to the scavengers, who asked not to be identified, police officers from the station would regularly visit the site to arrest them and confiscate their hammers and the steel bars they salvaged from the abandoned building at the corner of Bagtikan and Kamagong streets.

The uniformed policemen, the scavengers said, would usually arrive at around 2 p.m. every day to make arrests. They said the policemen would usually collect P500 from a group of scavengers in return for their tools and scrap metal.

According to scavengers, they sell the scrap metal collected from the building to a nearby junkshop.

“The owner said it was okay for us to scavenge here, instead of having the building demolished by someone else,” a scavenger said in Filipino, but none of them could name who gave them permission.

According to one scavenger, they can identify the policemen who extort money from them.

Some of the scavengers said there are times the policemen would take the scrap metal and sell it to the junkshop themselves. One scavenger said the policemen started their visits since the building was allegedly opened to scavengers last April 20.

Victim Christian Serrano’s mother is appealing to the Southern Police District to see the case through. Christian was the fourth among seven children.

“My son wanted to be a policeman, but a policeman killed him,” Salvacion, 43, said. “They should not stop the investigation.”

Christian’s father, Armando, 44, told The STAR his son would have been a second year student this June at the Pio del Pilar High School. According to Armando, who works as an electrician, the day Christian died was also his first day to go scavenging at the abandoned building.

“He and his friends did not have tools. They just wanted some extra money,” he said.

Mike, who went scavenging with Christian at the abandoned building, said he was at the second floor at around 2 p.m. when he saw a group of policemen arriving. He said he heard a gunshot and he jumped to the ground floor and ran.

Mike said Christian was at the ground floor with their friends, John and Janice. John said he heard three more shots fired, and later saw Christian lying on the ground.

“I thought he just tripped. I approached him and he said he was hit,” John said. It was at this point that he was apprehended by a policeman he later identified as Police Officer 3 Robert Rinion, one of the accused.

Police earlier said Rinion was with PO1 Nicolas Apostol Jr., and Chief Inspector Angelo Germinal at the abandoned building when the incident happened. A witness also identified Germinal as the one who allegedly shot Christian.

Mike said the policemen at the scene “did nothing” and that he and John took Christian to the nearby Ospital ng Makati with the help of a tricycle driver. Christian was pronounced dead on arrival at the Osmak. His father said Christian was shot in the back. 

Mike also said Germinal, Rinion and Apostol visited the abandoned building at least three times prior to the shooting.