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 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/

2018 SOPA AWARDS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 1 DUTERTE’S KILLER COPS Part 1

It was at least an hour, according to resi- dents, 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 ’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 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

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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 ’ 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

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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. The hospital told Reuters it had no were dead on arrival following a police opera- record of receiving patients from Old Balara tion, according to Quezon City Police District that night. data. One of them, Bello said, had a single The Old Balara bodies were already in the gunshot wound. The bullet had entered below morgue of East Avenue Medical Center by the the chin and exited through the top of the time the mother of victim Elmer Gayoso arrived. head. Bello said he found the injury “quite She asked Reuters to withhold her name, saying questionable.” she feared retribution from the police. Such an injury is usually associated with Gayoso had been shot through the head victims of suicide or execution, said Homer and the heart, she said, and the headshot had Venters of Physicians for Human Rights, a destroyed his face. She said her husband iden- group based in New York that investigates tified him by scouring his corpse for familiar mass atrocities. “It is very hard for that to childhood scars. The wounds were so grave happen when a person isn’t fully compliant,” that she didn’t believe that the police took he said. Venters didn’t examine the body that Gayoso to the hospital to save his life. Bello referred to. “That was their pretense,” she said, weeping. Patel Mayuga, another ER doctor at East The killings also troubled Paez, the ER Avenue Medical Center, has pronounced 10 doctor. “We documented everything, just in victims of police shootings dead on arrival, case in the future it is needed for investiga- according to Quezon City Police District data. tion,” he said. Suspects who are dead on arrival usually have Even if doctors at East Avenue Medical “clean shots” in the forehead or chest, suggesting

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the killings were intentional, said Mayuga. “If Nor, it seemed, were others. Saludares they are shot in the chest or head, there was time said that state agencies that investigate police for the attacker to prepare,” he said. killings, such as the Commission on Human Many other drug suspects brought to hospi- Rights or the National Bureau of Investigation, The CHR, tals in Quezon City by police were also shot didn’t come to interview him. Saludares also given its in the head and heart, often from less than a said he was uncomfortable speaking freely and current meter away, four doctors told Reuters. feared losing his job. One January evening, police delivered five Chito Gascon, chairman of the Commission capacity bodies in a small jeepney bus to the state-run on Human Rights, said that if specific cases constraints, Novaliches District Hospital in Quezon City. were brought to the agency’s attention, its is only The floor of the jeepney bus was puddled with investigators should pursue them and secure able to the victims’ blood and excrement, recalled testimony from doctors. But the Commission Lawrence Laguno, the ER doctor on duty. was stretched, he added. “The CHR, given its investigate According to police, the victims had all pulled current capacity constraints, is only able to and guns and opened fire on undercover officers investigate and document a fraction of all the document during an anti-drug operation. They missed, deaths that have been reported by the media,” a fraction and the police returned fire. he said. “All suspects were seriously injured,” The National Bureau of Investigation didn’t of all the said the police report. “Thereafter, wounded comment. deaths that suspects were rushed to Novaliches District have been Hospital for medical treatment but pronounced reported by dead on arrival by attending physician, Dr. “THEY WEREN’T BREATHING” the media. Lawrence Laguno.” Police say they don’t shoot to kill and that Laguno told Reuters that all five men had saving lives is paramount. But 17 witnesses been shot in the head and chest, with almost interviewed by Reuters say their behaviour at the same entry and exit wounds – injuries that crime scenes suggests the opposite. looked to him both deliberate and impossible In September, in a district called to survive. “It’s unusual to have the same five Nagkaisang Nayon, precinct commander Chito Gascon patients with almost the same injuries,” said Llanderal led an operation that added six dead- Chairman of the the doctor. “It was a trained shooter. They on-arrival cases to the Quezon City body count. Commission on knew what they were doing.” According to a police report, the suspects – five Human Rights Venters of Physicians for Human Rights said men and a woman – opened fire on undercover it is “incredibly rare” to sustain a tight group- officers posing as drug buyers. They missed, ing of gunshot wounds in a shootout. Venters, and the officers returned fire. a medical doctor, has overseen research and “When the smoke cleared,” said the report, investigations into extrajudicial killings. When “all suspects sustained gunshot wounds on bullets enter a body from the same direction their body. Immediately thereafter, all suspects and plane, it shows the target wasn’t moving, were rushed to Novaliches District Hospital for he said. “Either they were surprised and shot, or medical treatment but (were) pronounced dead they were subdued and shot.” on arrival.” None of the officers were injured. Willie Saludares, acting chairman of the Llanderal acknowledged that removing the emergency room at East Avenue Medical bodies disturbed the crime scene, but insisted Center, said doctors didn’t follow up on ques- the suspects were alive. “They were still tionable cases, since how patients were killed moving. All of them!” he said. wasn’t their concern. “I’m sorry to sound too Bereaved relatives and other witnesses cold, but that’s the way it is,” he said. “I am told Reuters the bodies were taken to hospital only concerned about the health of the patient. an hour or more after the shooting, and that I’m not doing investigative work.” none of the victims showed signs of life. “They

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weren’t moving. They weren’t breathing,” said Feliciano Dela Cruz, the local district chief. “It’s not possible they were alive,” said Jocelyn Ceron, 47, whose husband, Ronaldo, It’s not was among the dead. “We saw them thrown in possible the back of a truck.” they were Ceron said Ronaldo’s body had six bullet alive, we wounds: three in the chest or torso, one in the saw them leg, and one in each hand. Relatives said the other bodies each bore at least six gunshot thrown in wounds. Ceron showed Reuters photos of the the back of crime scene. a truck. Llanderal confirmed that the photos were taken by police investigators and showed the immediate aftermath of his operation. One photo shows a woman lying face down in a blood- smeared alleyway. Others show a tiny room in which five men lie slumped in pools of blood or Jocelyn Ceron Ronaldo Ceron’s wife on the floor; two guns are clearly visible. Reuters shared the crime scene photos with Fortun, the independent forensic scientist. “Based on the pictures, they are apparently very dead,” Fortun said of the six victims. For so many bodies to be crammed into a tiny room “doesn’t seem consistent” with police claims that the suspects were shot while fleeing during a gun battle, she added. Relatives of Ronaldo Ceron believe the police executed him and others in cold blood. A neighbour called Maricol Amacna said she heard one of the men begging, “Don’t kill me, sir!” The Commission on Human Rights says it is investigating the killings. The police have dismissed allegations of wrongdoing as “useless and baseless,” and have issued commendations to Llanderal and his men for “the extraordinary courage you have displayed in the successful operation...which resulted in the neutralization” of the suspects. Llanderal denied executing drug suspects. “In police operations, we don’t know where the bullets may hit,” he said. “Some suspects retaliate, fight us. We are only defending ourselves.”

Additional Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Janet McBride and Peter Hirschberg

2018 SOPA AWARDS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 6 DUTERTE’S KILLER COPS Part 2

and loading their limp bodies onto pedicabs to take them to hospital. The footage casts new doubts on the official accounts of police killings in President Rodrigo Duterte’s 17-month war on drugs. In June, Reuters revealed that police have shot hundreds of people during anti-drug oper- ations, then taken them to hospitals where they are declared dead on arrival. Police say they’re trying to save lives. Bereaved relatives and other witnesses allege police are sending corpses to hospitals to disrupt crime scenes and cover up extrajudicial killings. Police have shot dead at least 3,900 people Manila police in anti-narcotic operations since Duterte took power in June 2016 – always in self-defence, police say. Human rights activists blame police tell one story of for thousands more killings attributed to vigi- lantes, but authorities deny any involvement. A witness to the Barangay 19 killings told Reuters that the three men were executed and a drug killing. not, as the police claim, shot in self-defence. Police say they only use deadly force in self-de- fence, but a series of investigations by Reuters Videos tell suggest they are summarily executing people. The security camera footage not only contra- dicts the police account of the Barangay 19 kill- another ings. It also provides further evidence of another drug-war tactic: the disabling of surveillance cameras at crime scenes by the police. In the footage, filmed simultaneously by four security BY CLARE BALDWIN AND ANDREW R.C. MARSHALL cameras, an officer is seen turning the camera that captured the action away from the scene. NOVEMBER 27 BARANGAY 19, MANILA The police understand the dangers posed by such footage, which can expose their actions. An active-duty commander involved in the he police report was clear. Anti-drug drug war told Reuters earlier this year that officers shot and injured three men police collude with local officials to unplug in this poor district of the Philippine security cameras in areas where they plan to capital, then “rushed” them to hospital carry out a drug-war killing. Twhere they were pronounced dead on arrival. Reuters has obtained footage from all four But security camera footage obtained by security cameras, each capturing the episode Reuters tells a different story of what happened from a different angle. Together, the cameras just after midday on October 11 in Barangay provide a unique record of a police operation (district) 19. It shows that police took at least from start to finish. Some of the Barangay 19 25 minutes to haul away the men they had footage was previously aired by Philippine shot. The victims show no signs of life; police broadcaster GMA. are seen carrying them by their arms and legs “The operation was legitimate,” said

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Santiago Pascual, the commander of the The officers in the Barangay 19 footage station that conducted the raid, in a statement belong to an anti-drug unit from Police Station to Reuters. A station investigation showed that 2 in Manila, according to a police report of the his officers had followed correct operational incident. Of the 15 officers who appear clearly Don’t do procedure, said Pascual, and eyewitness testi- on the footage, only one is wearing a mask. that to my mony that they had opened fire on unarmed The report said Rolando Campo, 60, sold husband! men was “untrue and unfounded.” drugs to an undercover officer, who signalled I will report for back-up. Campo “sensed the presence” of you! There the police officers and ordered his two associ- GROWING UNEASE ates – Sherwin Bitas, 34, and Ronnie Cerbito, are CCTV Police carried out the Oct. 11 raid a day after 18 – to draw their guns and open fire on them, cameras Duterte ordered them to leave anti-drug the report said. here! operations to the state-run Philippine Drug The police retaliated, leaving the three men Enforcement Agency. The October memo “fatally wounded,” it said. marked the second time that Duterte has publicly But the footage shows Campo chatting with told police officers to stop waging his drug war. people in the neighbourhood in the minutes He announced a halt to their operations in late before the police arrive, and not, as the report January after news emerged that police had said, selling drugs to an undercover officer. Arlene Gibaga Sherwin Bitas’ wife kidnapped and murdered a South Korean busi- nessman. He lifted that ban one month later, saying drugs were returning to the streets. “FOLLOWING ORDERS” In his latest order, Duterte said he wanted The police operation doesn’t seem to be “to bring order to the operation/campaign undercover. The footage shows mainly plain- against illegal drugs, thus pinpointing precise clothes officers, most of them visibly armed accountability.” and some wearing body armour, entering the The announcement came amid escalating area through the alley on which Campo and public criticism of alleged police atrocities. Bitas lived. The officers pass in full view of the Recent surveys by Manila-based pollster Social victims’ house seven minutes before the shoot- Weather Stations have shown rising distrust of ing starts. the police and unease with their brutal meth- Arlene Gibaga, Bitas’ wife, told Reuters that ods, which have been criticised by the influen- she witnessed the shooting and the three men tial Catholic Church. were unarmed. “We don’t have the money for The circulation online of security camera guns,” said Gibaga, who has three young chil- footage of police operations and vigilante kill- dren with Bitas. She said her husband didn’t ings has spurred public disquiet with Duterte’s deal drugs. bloody anti-drug campaign. Outrage followed Police detained the men in an alley next to the August release of video that seemed to back her house, she said, and asked her to get Bitas’ up eyewitness accounts of how teenager Kian ID. When she produced it, said Gibaga, one Loyd delos Santos was killed that month. officer shouted “Positive! Positive!” and then Police said they shot the 17-year-old in the officers fired on Bitas. self-defence after he opened fire. Eyewitnesses “Don’t do that to my husband!” she said police took the unarmed boy to a trash- screamed, as the police shot Bitas. “I will report filled alley in northern Manila and shot him in you! There are CCTV cameras here!” the head. Footage emerged showing two offi- One of the officers then aimed his gun at cers marching a figure toward the spot where Gibaga and ordered her inside, she said. delos Santos’ body was found. His funeral The footage doesn’t show the police shoot- procession turned into the biggest protest yet ing the three men, but does show an officer against the drug war. appearing to open fire on an unseen target.

2018 SOPA AWARDS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 8 DUTERTE’S KILLER COPS Part 2

Campo then falls backwards into the frame, his body hitting the ground. His arms move for a while before resting motionless. Less than a minute later, the camera that captured the scene of the shooting is effectively put out of action: someone turns it to face the wall. A second camera shows a police officer reaching up and turning it away. Station commander Pascual said the camera was averted for a “valid security reason” and to ensure the operation wasn’t compromised. His statement reiterated the police report’s version of events – “that the suspects first drew fire- arms and shot the operatives,” who returned fire in self-defence. Later that day, at Police Station 2, Gibaga said officers told her it was useless to complain. “It’s the government you will be fighting against,” she recalled one officer saying. “Don’t get angry at us. We are just following orders.”

Editing by Peter Hirschberg

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understand,” she recalled. Their use of Visayan was a clue to the identity of her husband’s killers. The officers belonged to what would become the deadliest police station in Quezon City Police District. Called Station 6, or Batasan Station, it is on a violent frontline in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Of the 12 police stations in Quezon City, which is part of Metro Manila, Station 6 was by far the most lethal. Its officers killed 108 people in anti-drug operations from July 2016 through June 2017, the campaign’s first year, account- ing for 39 percent of the city’s body count, according to Quezon City Police District crime reports reviewed and analysed by Reuters. How a secretive Almost all of these killings were carried out by Station 6’s anti-drug unit, the reports show. The officers who formed the core of that unit hailed from or near Davao, the southern home- police squad town of President Duterte. They called them- selves the “Davao Boys” – and spoke in the region’s language, Visayan. racked up kills There were 10 of them, their boss, Lito Patay, told Reuters. He took command of Station 6 in July 2016, shortly after the start of Duterte’s in Duterte’s drug war. Patay is also from Davao, where he once led a paramilitary police unit. Asked about Station 6’s high death toll under his command, drug war Patay said his officers only killed armed suspects who fought back. “I don’t feel bad because we are just defending ourselves,” he said in November. “We always follow the rule of law.” BY CLARE BALDWIN AND ANDREW R.C. MARSHALL Patay said the men previously served under him in Davao, but declined to identify them. DECEMBER 19 QUEZON CITY But eight of the Davao Boys’ names appear on a police transfer order which one of them posted on Facebook. Those names matched he police who burst into Kathrina the Quezon City crime reports reviewed by Polo’s house on a rainy night in Reuters. The reports showed that this small August 2016, then shot her husband group of men was involved in more than half of in the head and heart, spoke a Station 6’s drug-related killings, 62 out of 108 Tlanguage she recognized but didn’t under- deaths, including the three operations with the stand: Visayan. highest body count. It’s a common language in the southern Only one of the officers, Charles Owen Philippines. But in Polo’s poor neighbour- Molinos, agreed to be interviewed by Reuters. hood in Quezon City, hundreds of miles to the When asked what was so special about Davao north, Visayan is rarely heard. “The police kept cops, he smiled and said: “Special kill skills.” talking in Visayan because they knew I didn’t Reuters spent four months retracing the

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Davao Boys’ deadly path through Quezon other at shooting contests, Ruel and Patay said. City, speaking to scores of police officers and Like Dela Rosa, Patay has a reputation bereaved families and analysing thousands among police as an officer who loves action – of police crime reports covering the first year he was shot in the arm in 2008 while fighting We are of the drug war. These reports don’t specify Communist rebels – and hates drugs. “We are very angry which officers pulled the trigger but usually very angry about people involved in drugs,” about name officers who took part in an operation. Patay told Reuters, raising his voice and spit- After arriving in Quezon City, the Davao Boys ting out the words for emphasis. “We want to people were quickly involved in dozens of kills in what crush them. That’s our indoctrination.” involved police described as legitimate drug busts, but Local officials in Quezon City point out that in drugs. relatives, human rights monitors and lawyers Patay’s surname sounds like the Filipino word We want to say were often executions. for “death.” Get involved in drugs, they joke, What emerges is an intimate portrait of how and “patay ka kay Patay”: you’re dead to Patay. crush them. a secretive anti-drug unit mobilised and killed One official who knows him well said Patay That’s our – then vanished to await new orders. also joked about his name, and set his cell- indoctrina- The story of the Davao Boys also highlights a phone ringtone to a melody commonly used by tion. larger dynamic: Many of the drug war’s key police Philippine hearses. officers hail from or served in President Duterte’s In August, police chief Dela Rosa hometown, where the campaign’s brutal meth- commended Station 6 for its “highest accom- ods originated during his time as mayor. plishment” during the drug war. The follow- A Davao-based human rights group, the ing month, Patay was promoted and trans- Coalition Against Summary Execution, blamed ferred to an elite police unit called the Criminal Lito Patay death squads in the city for 1,424 murders there Investigation and Detection Group. Head of Station 6 police between 1998 and 2015, mostly of petty crimi- station in Quezon City nals and drug users. Duterte, who was mayor for much of that period, denied any involvement. “CHANGE IS COMING” At the time of publication, Duterte’s office Station 6 presides over six large barangays, or and the Philippine National Police had not districts, that include government complexes, a replied to questions from Reuters. giant garbage dump and some of the country’s The most prominent police officer from Davao roughest neighbourhoods. The area has pock- is . When Duterte became pres- ets of prosperity – mainly gated communities ident in June 2016, he appointed Dela Rosa as untouched by the drug war. The poorer areas his national police chief and gave him free rein to have felt the full fury of Duterte’s campaign, roll out Davao’s crime-fighting model across the and of Station 6’s drug squad. Philippines. “He is leaving everything up to me,” Patay’s arrival at the station in July 2016 Dela Rosa told Reuters at the time. coincided with a dramatic purge. Quezon City Since then, police say they have killed Police District relieved the entire Station 6 anti- almost 4,000 drug suspects, all of them in drugs unit – 53 officers, according to local media self-defence. Human rights activists blame reports – on suspicion of involvement in drugs, police for thousands more killings attributed to extortion and other crimes. The purge gave Patay vigilantes, but police deny any involvement in the freedom to assemble a new drug squad, with those deaths. his handpicked Davao Boys at its core. Dela Rosa was helped by officers he knew The Davao boys had all served under him and trusted from Davao – among them, Lito on previous police assignments, Patay told Patay. Dela Rosa handpicked Patay to run Reuters. “So they know me,” he said. “They Station 6 in Quezon City, Dela Rosa’s brother know my integrity and they know that once I’ve Ruel told Reuters. Dela Rosa and Patay are told them this is a thing to do, then they have to champion marksmen who first got to know each follow.” He added: “They have to obey.”

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One of them was Charles Owen Molinos. Patay’s men were a breed apart. They wore According to the police crime reports reviewed bullet-proof vests even when they went out by Reuters, Molinos has taken part in 29 oper- to buy cigarettes, said Reynaldo Esteban, an ations that killed 56 people. He was one of six officer with the station’s community relations Davao Boys who took part in the operation that team. Esteban said part of Patay’s morning killed Kathrina Polo’s husband, Cherwen, that routine was doing dry-fire practice – that is, rainy evening in August 2016. shooting with an unloaded gun – on the roof- At least five Davao Boys have public top. “He loves his .45 caliber gun,” he said. Facebook accounts that provide many personal The Davao Boys remained aloof, but their details – although some of them, in an appar- purpose and resolve to wage the drug war were ent attempt to obscure their identities, spell clear to Esteban, who works on drug-aware- their names backwards. Charles Molinos, for ness campaigns. He said of Patay’s men: “We example, confirmed that he is Selrahc Sonilom. are the prevention. They are the cure.” On 5 July 2016, eight police officers were He added nervously: “Joke!” reassigned from Police Regional Office 11 – that is, the Davao region – to Metro Manila, which includes Quezon City, “by command THE DRUG SQUAD of Police Director Dela Rosa,” according to a The crime data analysed by Reuters contains photo of the transfer order that Molinos posted the names of 78 officers associated with drug- on Facebook. war killings at Station 6, including Patay and the Molinos’ comment next to the photo reads, Davao Boys. Some of these officers may not have “Change is coming” – Duterte’s campaign been directly involved in killing suspects. They slogan. Molinos also posted a photo of a board- might have guarded perimeters, or posed as drug ing pass for a July 4 flight to Manila. “Bye buyers during undercover operations known as Davao see you soon,” he wrote. “buy-busts,” police officers told Reuters. At least With the transfer from Davao to Quezon one third of the reports do not include a full list of City, on the main Philippine island Luzon, officers involved in the operation. Patay spoke and acted as if he and his men Patay said he ordered his Davao team to were entering enemy territory. Davao cops lead the buy-bust raids, but also mobilised all don’t take drug money, Patay told Reuters, but Station 6 officers to help secure the perimeter in Luzon “even (police) generals are corrupt.” during operations in “very dangerous” areas. He did not elaborate. “We are not super cops,” he said. Before the transfer, Patay said he gave his Officer de Ocampo said the drug squad had team a pep talk. “We will be going to Manila. 30 operatives, including the undercover cops We are a team,” he told them. “We should not who posed as buyers and the heavily armed be corrupted there … We will pray to God that officers – such as the Davao Boys – who backed we can resist temptations.” In Manila, Patay them up. The squad was usually assembled by housed the Davao Boys in a makeshift barracks text messages or through Facebook messenger, on the top floor of Station 6 and made sure he said, and its members were expected to be they only fraternised with other officers, not able to report to the station in 15 to 20 minutes. with members of the public. A Philippine police commander told Ronnick de Ocampo, a member of Station 6’s Reuters in February that buy-busts are actually drug squad – but not a Davao Boy – said Patay’s well-planned executions. Dealers can easily men were in their late thirties or early forties spot undercover cops and won’t sell drugs to and called each other “bro” or its Filipino equiv- them, said the commander. Instead, police alent, “tol.” De Ocampo wouldn’t tell Reuters operatives executed their targets, who were their names, and became agitated and changed usually unarmed, then planted guns and drugs the subject when pressed further about them. to justify the use of deadly force, he said.

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Patay said his officers only open fire in Among the victims was Kathrina Polo’s self-defence. Before each operation, he said, husband. he prayed with his men. They prayed for their By the time the Davao Boys entered her own protection, he said, but also “for the safety neighbourhood just after midnight on Aug. 15, That’s a of our targets, for the safety of the community.” 2016, carrying assault rifles and wearing what conse- Metho Andres, the police chaplain at Polo described as “full battle gear,” Station 6’s quence Station 6 who prayed with the officers, told drug squad had killed eight people in six opera- of them Reuters that the Bible justified the killing. tions, according to the crime data. disobeying Quoting Romans 13, he said Duterte was a That night, the squad added another five God-appointed “agent of wrath” whom police kills: Polo’s husband, Cherwen, three of his ... There should obey without question. He blamed drug drinking companions and a neighbour. Cherwen is wrath users for their own deaths. had been celebrating his 39th birthday. coming for “That’s a consequence of them disobeying,” When police entered the house, said those who said the pastor. “There is wrath coming for Kathrina, she was in a backroom and Cherwen don’t obey. those who don’t obey.” was upstairs with his friends, sleeping off the Also among the men transferred from booze. She heard footsteps going upstairs and Davao to Manila was Richard Timon. then six gunshots. At Station 6, Timon would participate in She said she emerged from the backroom to police operations in which at least 60 people were find at least five police in the house. “Sir, don’t killed, the police crime reports show. Five other shoot because there are children here!” she Metho Andres Davao Boys were associated with the deaths of begged them. An officer with a Visayan accent The police chaplain at Station 6 at least 50 people: Molinos; Michael Maderable; ordered Kathrina and her two children outside, Ronie Banggat; Jun Ralph Piñero; and she said. As they left, she heard more gunshots. Emmanuel Ibit. Two others, Renante Solomon The operation was a legitimate buy-bust, the and Dennis Pal, would be involved in operations police said in a report on the incident. When in which at least two dozen were killed. Cherwen Polo realised he was selling drugs to Patay and two of his superiors declined an undercover officer, the report said, he and to let Reuters interview the Davao Boys. One his companions drew weapons and opened fire. Davao Boy, Dennis Pal, did agree to be inter- The officers had “no other option but to retali- viewed but then abruptly cancelled and told ate,” said Patay in a separate statement. Reuters to contact his superiors. Maderable, Police said a gun battle then erupted in Ibit and Solomon did not reply to messages which they killed the five men and injured a sent to them on Facebook. Reuters could not sixth. According to a police autopsy, bullets locate Banggat, Timon and Pinero. went through Cherwen Polo’s head, heart and Only Charles Owen Molinos agreed to speak forearm. There were no reports of any police to Reuters. Molinos, who trained as a SWAT injuries. Patay and police authorities did not officer in Davao, has little sympathy for the reply to Reuters’ questions about the incident. drug suspects he was brought to Quezon City The police didn’t wear masks, said Polo. to combat. “They destroyed a lot of people,” Asked if she would recognise the men if she saw he said. “So this is the time that they suffer the them again, she replied without hesitation: “Yes.” consequences.” Reuters showed Polo photos of the Davao Molinos was involved in operations that Boys from Molinos’ Facebook page, and she claimed at least 56 lives, according to crime pointed to a man she recognised: Michael data analysed by Reuters. At first, he denied Maderable. Maderable is listed on the police killing anyone in Quezon City. Then he said report as one of the officers who participated in he had. When asked how many, he replied: the operation. “Zero.” Asked later about the tally of 56, he did His name also appears on the July 2016 not respond. transfer order. A Facebook account with

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Maderable’s name and photo says he is from for us because all drug units were abolished,” Tagum City, where Patay was police chief commented Dennis Pal, one of the Davao Boys, before assuming command of Station 6. on Facebook on Jan. 29. According to the crime data, Maderable was But they weren’t dismantled. They were involved in operations that killed at least 55 rebranded by the police. “Anti-illegal drug people in the first year of the drug war. Reuters units” became “drug enforcement units.” could not reach Maderable for comment. The Davao Boys stayed put – and Molinos Senior officers declined to make him available. appeared on Facebook wearing a t-shirt with Molinos and Maderable were among five the new name, featuring a skull with red eyes Davao Boys involved in Station 6’s deadliest and a grotesquely elongated jaw. operation – which was also the deadliest police On Feb. 28, Duterte ordered police to operation in all of Quezon City in the first year resume operations, and the number of killings of the drug war. by Station 6 continued to climb. Eight Davao In September 2016, police entered the Old Boys took part in an operation that killed Balara barangay around midnight and shot Bernabe Sabangan, 23, and his friend in May seven drug suspects in what they said was 2017. Police recorded it as a buy-bust. self-defence. Police said that afterwards, in a bid Mariel Sabangan told Reuters that her to save lives, they rushed their victims to hospi- brother had been cooking and watching tele- tal, where they were declared dead on arrival. vision when Patay’s men burst in and hand- A Reuters investigation in June found that cuffed him. Mariel said she pleaded with them police were using hospitals to hide drug war to let him go, but they bundled her and her killings. Most of the seven men had been shot husband outside. A minute later, she heard in the head and chest, said the doctor who three gunshots. “I was already crying. I was declared them dead on arrival. The police deny going wild because I knew what that meant,” any cover-up took place. she said. “Feeling proud at QCPD Police Station 6,” Afterwards, she said, the police stayed to Molinos posted on Facebook five days later. play basketball outside her house for another “We’ve contributed a lot here already,” he wrote. half hour or so, before taking the bodies of her brother and his friend to hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival. The offi- BUSINESS AS USUAL cers drank her dead brother’s coffee and stole In 2017, Station 6’s kill rate began to drop, the jewellery, cell phones, children’s piggy banks records show. From July to December 2016, and a motorcycle, she said. the first six months of the drug war, 87 people When Reuters showed Mariel pictures from were killed. In the next six months, only 21 Molinos’ Facebook page, she said: “My heart were killed. This made sense to Patay. He said beats fast.” She recognised three men, includ- his station’s “first salvo” had frightened drug ing Molinos, who she said had been dressed in suspects, making them less likely to fight back. “battle gear.” Molinos and another man had But there were other forces at work. In Visayan accents – “same (as) the president” – January, the country learned that drug squad and Molinos put a gun to her husband’s neck officers had abducted and killed a South as he shoved him outside, she said. The police Korean businessman at national police head- crime report names Molinos as one of the offi- quarters in Manila. The killing fuelled growing cers who participated in the operation. public opposition to the police and their brutal Mariel says she now has trouble sleeping. methods. “It’s like I’m going out of my mind,” she said. “I Duterte halted police anti-drug operations feel like the police could come back anytime.” for most of February and vowed to dismantle Patay and Molinos did not respond to Reuters’ the units. “Looks like (it means) coming home requests for comment about the episode.

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“THEY DESERVE TO DIE” than any other station in Quezon City in the Patay expected total obedience and trans- first year – there was limited impact on crime. parency from his men. “All your operations I From July 2015 to June 2016 – the year have to know, because I should always guide,” before Duterte launched his campaign – Those he said he told them. Patay also had orders to Station 6 recorded 1,129 major crimes, includ- son of a follow. He stressed that at Station 6 he was not ing murders, rapes and robberies. In the drug bitch drug implementing “my own policies” but those of war’s first year, it recorded 931 major crimes, a the government and police leadership. drop of 18 percent, according to crime reports. pushers Patay said local politicians – known as But the proportion of major crimes commit- shouldn’t barangay captains – had too long been afraid ted in Station 6’s area relative to all of Quezon have to set foot in some areas. He told Reuters he City increased from 12 percent to 15 percent. human turned the tables on them with a message: In other words, Station 6’s area grew more “This is not the time to be afraid of the crim- dangerous when compared with other parts of rights... inals. This is the right time that the criminals Quezon City. They will be frightened of us.” Patay is now a regional commander with an deserve Patay’s methods drew a conflicted response elite unit that investigates high-profile crimes, to die. from the barangay captains. “The killings were the Criminal Investigation and Detection back-to-back when Patay was chief,” recalled Group. The CIDG answers directly to police Crisell Beltran, the captain of Bagong Silangan chief Dela Rosa. district, where Bernabe Sabangan was killed. Patay spoke to Reuters in October at the She described this as “positive, negative.” CIDG bureau in San Fernando City, about The killings made some neighbourhoods more a two-hour drive north of Manila. The shelf Manuel Co peaceful, she said. “The negative, of course, behind his desk held trophies from recent Captain of the was that people died.” shooting contests. He said he had used prize neighbouring Commonwealth Beltran said Station 6 never informed her money to buy his men body armour. barangay before launching what she called “special oper- Patay said he was waiting to reunite with the ations.” The barangay was only called after- Davao Boys at CIDG. When they moved with wards, to ferry away dead or wounded suspects, him to Manila, he said, they had one request: she said. Beltran said on Oct. 8 she couldn’t to join him on his next posting and “not be left recall a single police killing in her district since behind.” They were now awaiting their formal Patay was transferred out in September. Patay transfer, he said. and police authorities did not reply to a request For now, the men who led Quezon City’s for comment. deadliest drug squad are in limbo. According to The captain of the neighbouring Molinos, the squad was living in a property in Commonwealth barangay, Manuel Co, said he Pasong Tamo, a barangay in Quezon City. He was always forewarned about Station 6’s oper- wouldn’t say exactly where. ations. He said he even joined some of them, “A safe house,” Molinos smiled. “For Davao carrying the assault rifle that sat behind his Boys only.” desk when Reuters interviewed him. “Those son of a bitch drug pushers shouldn’t Editing by Janet McBride and Peter Hirschberg have human rights,” said Co. “They deserve to die.” Even so, Patay was “pro-life,” Co said. “He doesn’t want anyone to die. The only reason people die is because they fight back.” Co credited the drug war for a dramatic drop in crime in his barangay. The data tell a more ambiguous story. For all of the blood – Station 6 had a third more drug-related killings

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