Duterte's Killer Cops

2018 SOPA AWARDS NOMINATION BISHOPDUTERTE’Sfor INVESTIGATIVE KILLER REPORTING COPS Part 1 BLOOD ON THE STREET: The aftermath of what police said was a shoot-out with three drug suspects beneath MacArthur Bridge in central Manila in June. The three men were pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao Duterte’s killer cops BY CLARE BALDWIN AND ANDREW R.C. MARSHALL JUNE 29 – DECEMBER 19 MANILA/ QUEZON CITY 2018 SOPA AWARDS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 1 DUTERTE’S KILLER COPS Part 1 It was at least an hour, according to residents, before the victims were thrown into a truck and taken to hospital in what a police report said was a bid to save their lives. Old Balara’s chief, the elected head of the district, told Reuters he was perplexed. They were already dead, Allan Franza said, so why take them to hospital? An analysis of crime data from two of Metro Manila’s five police districts and interviews with doctors, law enforcement officials and victims’ families point to one answer: Police Philippine were sending corpses to hospitals to destroy evidence at crime scenes and hide the fact that they were executing drug suspects. police use Thousands of people have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30 last year and declared war on what he called “the drug menace.” Among them were hospitals to the seven victims from Old Balara who were declared dead on arrival at hospital. A Reuters analysis of police reports covering hide drug the first eight months of the drug war reveals hundreds of cases like those in Old Balara. In Quezon City Police District and neighbouring killings Manila Police District, 301 victims were taken to hospital after police drug operations. Only two survived. The rest were dead on arrival. The data also shows a sharp increase in BY CLARE BALDWIN AND ANDREW R.C. MARSHALL the number of drug suspects declared dead on arrival in these two districts each month. JUNE 29 MANILA There were 10 cases at the start of the drug war in July 2016, representing 13 percent of police drug shooting deaths. By January 2017, he residents of Old Balara hid in their the tally had risen to 51 cases or 85 percent. homes when gunfire erupted in their The totals grew along with international and Manila district last September. They domestic condemnation of Duterte’s campaign. didn’t see the police operation that This increase was no coincidence, said a Tkilled seven drug suspects that night. police commander in Manila, who spoke to But they witnessed the gory aftermath and Reuters on condition of anonymity. In late it haunts them still. 2016, he said, police began sending victims to That night, Herlina Alim said she watched hospitals to avoid crime scene investigations police haul away the men’s bodies, leaving and media attention that might show they were trails of blood. “They were dragged down the executing drug suspects. A Reuters investiga- alley like pigs,” she said. Her neighbour Lenlen tion last year found that when police opened Magano said she saw three bodies, face down fire in drug operations, they killed 97 percent and motionless, piled at the end of the alley of people they shot. while police stood calmly by. The Manila commander said police 2018 SOPA AWARDS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 2 DUTERTE’S KILLER COPS Part 1 depended on emergency room doctors being incident and similar operations also suggests too focused on the patients to care about why that the purpose of hospital runs was to destroy they were shot. The doctors “aren’t asking any evidence rather than save lives. Police manhan- questions. They only record it: DOA,” he said. dled gunshot victims and showed no urgency in The But five doctors told Reuters they were getting them medical treatment, said three sets doctors troubled by the rising number of police-re- of family members and other witnesses. aren’t lated DOAs. Four said many drug suspects Removing bodies makes it harder to work brought to hospital had been shot in the head out what really happened. “You obliterate asking any and heart, sometimes at close range – precise the crime scene – the evidence,” said Rizaldy questions. and unsurvivable wounds that undermined Rivera, an agent at the Philippines’ National They only police claims that suspects were injured during Bureau of Investigation who has investigated record it: chaotic exchanges of gunfire. allegations of police brutality. Police forensic Oscar Albayalde, Metro Manila’s police investigators at the scene, said Rivera, must DOA chief, said he had never heard of officers taking carry out their work on what is effectively a dead suspects to hospital to cover up crime “tampered crime scene.” scenes. “We will have that investigated,” he Scene of Crime Operatives, or SOCO units told Reuters. If that investigation showed as police forensic teams are called, process police were “intentionally moving these dead crime scenes and conduct autopsies. Aurelio bodies and bringing them to the hospitals just Trampe, the police general who oversees A police commander in Manila to alter the evidence, then I think we have to SOCO, said police officers haven’t been remov- make them explain.” ing bodies to alter crime scenes. He said they Duterte’s office declined to expand on have the discretion to disregard crime-scene Albayalde’s response to Reuters’ questions. investigative procedures “just as long as they According to police reports about the inci- could save lives.” dents, suspects shot during operations were SOCO can still collect evidence from bodies “immediately rushed” to hospital. “The most once they reach the hospital, but doesn’t important (thing) is the life of the person,” always do so. Instead, said SOCO forensic chief said Randy Llanderal, a precinct commander Reynaldo Calaoa, that task falls to a police in Quezon City. The police reports reviewed investigator assigned to the case. That investi- by Reuters showed Llanderal had led or joined gator often hails from the same station as the operations in which 13 drug suspects ended up colleagues who killed the suspect. dead on arrival. Such practices can leave the system open Llanderal said all suspects were shot in to abuse, said Raquel Del Rosario Fortun, an self-defence during legitimate operations. independent forensic scientist and chair of the The Manila police commander, a retired University of the Philippines Manila pathology senior officer and some doctors believe there department. is a cover up. Hospitalising drug suspects who “They do the shooting, they do the killing have been shot allows police to project a more – and they investigate themselves,” she said. caring image, said the Manila commander. The “Impunity, that’s what’s happening.” retired officer agreed. “It is basically a ploy to make the public believe that the police are mindful of the safety and survival of suspects,” COLD TO THE TOUCH he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Old Balara is part of Quezon City, the largest of The Manila commander said his officers were the 17 cities and municipalities that make up instructed to shoot at “sensitive areas.” Suspects Metro Manila, and the most populous city in who survived were shot again to finish them off the Philippines. or smothered with their own clothing, he said. Old Balara district chief Franza said police A Reuters examination of the Old Balara insisted his staff of volunteer security guards 2018 SOPA AWARDS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 3 DUTERTE’S KILLER COPS Part 1 bring drug-war casualties from operations Center suspect a new arrival is dead, hospital to the hospital – even when it was clear they protocol requires them to try to resuscitate the were dead. Because he has assisted the police patient, said Paez. This is costly and wastes time by transporting casualties, the victims’ families at a big public hospital teeming with patients. have accused him and his staff of complicity in In a recent visit by Reuters, old people wearing the killings, he said. oxygen masks lay unmoving on gurneys. New In March, Franza decided he had had patients arrived every few minutes. enough. Keep responding to police calls, he Asked about the number of drug suspects told his staff, but don’t take a body to hospital arriving dead at hospital, the acting director without the go-ahead from SOCO crime scene of the East Avenue Medical Center, Victoria investigators. “I decided not to take action Abesamis, said: “I cannot categorically say which I think is not proper,” said Franza. that the police are bringing these dead bodies The seven victims from Old Balara arrived because they want to cover up. I think I will at East Avenue Medical Center stacked in a give them the benefit of the doubt.” flatbed truck and another vehicle, said Jerome Paez, an attending physician at the emergency room that night. Most had been shot in the TRAINED SHOOTER head and many also had multiple gunshots in Lawrence Bello and three other doctors at East their chests, he said. None were breathing or Avenue Medical Center interviewed by Reuters had a pulse. also expressed unease about handling dead- “All of them were cold to the touch,” said on-arrival cases from police operations. Paez, who has dealt with 21 drug suspects Bello said the police would sometimes pronounced dead on arrival. deliver bodies that were already displaying The victims had been refused admission rigor mortis, which sets in several hours after earlier at Quezon City General Hospital’s emer- death. East Avenue would get two or three such gency room, a 15-minute drive away, because bodies per month, he said. they were already dead, said district chief Bello has dealt with 20 cases where suspects Franza.

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