MANILA, Philippines — The country’s top cop on Friday said the Philippine National Police is raising funds to help the relieved police officers, who mistakenly shot at a vehicle and killed two of its passengers in Mandaluyong, to post bail.
Two people were killed and two others were wounded last month in a shooting incident along Shaw Boulevard, where law enforces mistakenly opened fire at a vehicle bringing a gunshot victim to the hospital.
The police were deployed to assist barangay watchmen who were pursuing a white van they thought was carrying the shooter in an earlier incident.
According to PNP chief Director-General Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, the policemen and village officials involved in the fatal shooting were already charged with double homicide and double frustrated homicide.
A warrant of arrest, which set the recommended bail bond, has also been issued, Dela Rosa added.
“We’re putting up bail fund for them. So that’s our moral responsibility because those cops are our men,” Dela Rosa told CNN Philippines.
“They were performing their duties during the time although they made a mistake. But still deep inside them there was no ill motive in that operation,” he added.
Malacañang earlier assured the public that there will be no whitewash in the investigation of the shooting incident in Mandaluyong City.
The PNP is already facing unprecedented scrutiny due to concerns about their conduct during anti-narcotics operations.
Thousands of suspected drug traffickers have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed his lethal drug war, with human rights group saying most of the fatalities in the crackdown were extrajudicial killings committed by cops.
But the police force, which continues to enjoy Duterte’s trust despite previously calling them “corrupt to the core,” had denied executing suspects in cold blood, saying they only killed in self defense.
In the same live television interview with CNN Philippines, Dela Rosa said the mistaken identity shooting was completely unacceptable, but “shit happens.”
"So they have to face the consequences of their actions," he said.
READ: Mandaluyong cops, watchmen face homicide raps for 'misencounter'