“I explained to (General Albayalde) that I never said those things. I was misinterpreted.”
--PNP regional chief Debold Sinas
THE minority senators last Oct. 10, under Resolution #915, moved for a committee hearing on the spate of illegal killings in Cebu. Under the police “one-time, big-time” operations against illegal drugs, people have wondered what version local PNP officials will present to the senators.
A total of 19 drug suspects were recently killed “for supposedly fighting back.” On a single day, Oct. 5, the number of casualties reached 14 in parts of Cebu, five of which took place in an alleged shootout between drug syndicates in Bry. Malubog, Cebu City.
Survivors’ tale
Two survivors in the Malubog incident, in media interviews, alleged that police were involved. A “habal-habal” driver and a woman were among those arrested by police at an apartment in Guadalupe and taken in a van to the mountain barangay where they were shot.
It is not known if the two survivors would stick to that narrative in the police investigation and Senate inquiry, if ever they would testify there. How could they hold on to the allegation-- that police killed the others and tried to kill them too but failed– when they had reportedly been taken under protection of the police who have their own story to pitch?
Police version
The thing is that it was at the time the police side of the incident: the drug syndicate were shooting at one another. Until last Oct. 31, when in a Facebook live interview by CDN, police regional chief Debold Sinas purportedly said there are retired and active police who are hired by drug syndicates. The statement was reported in print and picked up by an international news outfit. It also prompted a call from Human Rights Watch for an independent investigation and the Commission on Human Rights to announce its own inquiry. The local account became a national story, which led Camp Crame officials to ask Sinas, What did you actually say, General?
Sinas scrambled for a plausible explanation: “I never said there are policemen serving as hit-men. What I said is that if there are policemen who are into gun-for-hire activities, then they should be investigated.” He said he told PNP chief Oscar Albayalde he did not say “those things” and was “misinterpreted.” The story about the killings is “all rumors,” he said, and he did not say that the accusations were “conclusive and definite.”
Back to original story
That would bring the police theory back to the original claim: the people who were killed were shot by drug syndicates and, in other cases, they resisted arrest and fired their guns. And you know what? That version would stand unless there is convincing evidence that police were the culprits.
Who would testify at the Senate hearing and show the “conclusive and definite evidence” that Sinas said he could not find? Would Human Rights Watch and Commission on Human Rights show up and present contradictory proof against the police version?
Muted Tomas
How about Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who took up the cudgels for victims of the illegal executions when a barangay councilor, his political leader and ally, was allegedly targeted by the police as a suspected drug trafficker? The assassination attempt was foiled; instead a cop tailing the would-be victim was killed. But Tomas has since been muted, apparently by the repeated public threats of President Duterte to slap the mayor when they would meet.
The Senate hearing would bring up nothing but the police explanation of the series of killings in the cities and towns of Cebu-- unless those who disagree have evidence to show otherwise.