MANILA, Philippines — Police General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police chief, said Monday that the police operations over the weekend that left 14 dead happened across the province.
On Saturday, a report from the Philippine National Police Directorate Police Operations office in Visayas said that eight people were killed in Canlaon City, four in Manjuyod and two in Catalina in Negros Oriental.
Rights groups Karapatan, farmers' groups UMA and National Federation of Sugar Farmers condemned the killing of the 14, whom they said were just farmers and habal-habal drivers.
READ: 14 dead in Negros Oriental police operations
But Albayalde, in a press briefing on Monday stressed that the authorities were armed with 36 search warrants when they conducted the operation on Saturday.
“Thirty-six search warrants in different parts of Negros Oriental. It is not true that this is a massacre. This happened in different places,” he added in Filipino.
The police chief also pointed out that there were 12 others who were arrested, and not killed, during the operations.
“Itong mga 14 na ito, ito yung mga sinasabi nilang nanlaban (These 14 who were killed, these were those who fought back),” he said.
"I don't think police will fire if these people did not fight back," he said, stressing that if the intention was to kill, the 12 who were arrested would also have died.
Albayalde added that based on police intelligence reports, those who were killed “have previous participation in an alleged ambush” on police and an Army sergeant.
But Antonio "Ka Tonying" Flores, UMA chairperson, said the deaths were similar to what happened in Guihulngan and nearby places late last year when six farmers were killed "tokhang style" because they allegedly shot at police and military personnel.
"Tokhang" originally referred to a police operation to "knock" on alleged drug personalities' doors and "plead" with them to submit to the government's anti-drug campaign. It has since been used to refer to killings related to the so-called war on drugs.
The government has repeatedly said that the more than 5,000 "drug personalities" killed in operations forced law enforcement to kill them in self-defense.
Internal probe ongoing
The country's top cop also said that the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service is already looking into the incidents.
“While we assume regularity on all police operations, especially in this case that there were warrants to be served, IAS will always be there and conduct investigation,” the police chief said.
Albayalde said that they are expecting the IAS’ report on the incidents very soon.
He said that the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines stand ready if complaints would be filed against them.
"We are ready to face investigation, the PNP, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), including those involved in the investigation... to prove that it was a legitimate operation,” he added.
The Commission on Human Rights has already dispatched a team from its regional sub-office in Central Visayas to look into the deaths of the 14. — Kristine Joy Patag