Eleven policemen are now likely to face charges for killing six people in what the police reported as a buy-bust gone wrong in Bulacan last February.
After their investigation, the National Bureau of Investigation asked the Department of Justice to file charges against Police Major Leo dela Rosa, who then headed the intelligence and drug enforcement section of San Jose del Monte City police in Bulacan, and 10 of his subordinates for the deaths of Erwin Mergal, Jim Joshua Cordero, Edmar Aspirin, Richard Salgado, and cousins Chamberlain Domingo and Chadwin Santos last February 13.
The police report claimed that the six were the subjects of separate buy-bust operations but decided to fire back at policemen trying to arrest them, forcing policemen to fire back in self-defense.
This isn’t the first time we have heard the police claim that they tried to arrest a suspect who resisted. Incidents of reported armed resistance to arrest have become so common it has even been assigned the shortcut “nanlaban”.
However, according to the NBI, the six were arrested after just passing by a house where Dela Rosa’s men had just arrested five men for drugs. They were reportedly taken to the police station where they were held without charges.
Several days later, the NBI said the men were taken to a dark and secluded area on Pacolis Road in Barangay Gaya-Gaya where they were executed and evidence was then fabricated to make it look like they were armed and resisted arrest.
So in short, the NBI investigation points out that this isn’t one of those nanlaban incidents. While the NBI did not use the terms themselves, this incident could fall under extra-judicial killings, which have also become so common it has even been assigned the shortcut “EJK”.
Ever since the War against Drugs started, there have been numerous incidents of what the police claimed were nanlaban incidents and what the family or relatives of those slain claimed were actually EJKs.
We will leave it to the court to decide who is telling the truth in this matter. But there are those of us who cannot help but wonder if this particular incident really was an EJK. Then that would also lead us to wonder how many nanlaban incidents --not just in Bulacan, but also other areas in the country-- are actually EJKs, and it just so happened that there was not enough proof to pin down the policemen.
We have been saying time and again that while there are the good policemen who serve with honor and distinction, there are the rotten eggs who do not deserve to wear the uniform or the badge.
With any luck, due process will remove several more bad eggs from the Philippine National Police basket.