Even before the full picture can be pieced together on what happened in Atimonan, Quezon on Jan. 6 that led to the killing of 13 men by security forces, another man has been shot dead by a police team, this time in Batangas.
Fernando “Pandoy†Morales was killed by Batangas police officers outside his house in San Juan town the other day. Morales’ wife Merlita said her husband used to work as administrator in the gambling business of Vic Siman, who was reportedly the principal target in the police operation in Quezon.
Police reported that Morales was killed when he resisted arrest on a gun charge and tried to open fire. But Merlita said the members of the police Provincial Public Safety Company and Batangas Provincial Intelligence Group did not present any arrest warrant when they arrived at dawn. She said the police dragged her husband out of their home, and ordered her and the rest of the household to stay indoors. Then she heard gunshots. Her husband had seven gunshot wounds.
The police team could be telling the truth, but considering recent events involving Siman and members of the Calabarzon police, you’d think they would be more careful in serving an arrest warrant on another individual with links to Siman. In November last year, six men tagged as hired guns by the police but described by Siman’s relatives as his bet collectors were also killed in another purported shootout in Calamba City with the Calabarzon police.
If cops want to portray individuals as criminals, they should at least cite the specific crimes and identify the victims. Filipinos tend to be forgiving of the permanent elimination of threats to public safety, shrugging off the mass killings of notorious kidnappers, carjackers and bank robbers by police. In the absence of any criminal record, however, the public presumption is innocence. And when innocents are killed, the presumption is that they were summarily executed.