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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
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MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to take journalists with them during antidrug operations.
The President believes this would dispel allegations of extrajudicial killings in his administration’s war on drugs.
“Now this is an order: Bring the media at paunahin mo sila so they can get the story from the beginning to the end,” said Duterte.
“Kasi kung papasukin lang, tapos na ang barilan, sabi naman ninyo, ‘Ay, tinapunan lang iyan ng baril diyan.’ Kaya dapat sabay kayo sa police,” he added. “Why don’t you try to experience the work of the police?”
Journalists should show bravery “in the interest of the truth,” Duterte stressed, but he also warned reporters that they could get shot.
“Iyong police ngayon sinabi ko, ‘Do not make raids now without the media,’” he said. “See to it that it is — if it’s the camera, if there’s a reporter, see to it that they are there in the beginning up to the end. Katabi kayo ng police. O sige, iyan ang order ko.”
Duterte issued the order in a news conference after a televised Senate investigation in which PNP chief, Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, wept over what he said was his exasperation over unfair allegations against his men.
“If it is unbelieving, make them believe, dalhin mo,” he further said. “Kayo (media) ang mauna, tignan natin. Kayo ang mabaril, e ’di … Ayaw man kaya ninyong maniwala na walang mga baril iyan?”
The crackdown left thousands of suspects dead and came under renewed scrutiny after police gunned down a 17-year-old student, Kian Loyd delos Santos, during a raid in a slum in Caloocan City last month.
Murder and torture complaints were filed against three police officers and their commander in the Aug. 16 shooting of delos Santos.
Amid a growing outcry, Duterte said the officers will end up in jail if they killed delos Santos and met the student’s grieving parents to express his condolences.
Recently Duterte warned officers they will face the law if they are found to have carried out extrajudicial killings.
Before, he promised to defend police from lawsuits and grant them presidential pardon if they are convicted of any crimes while fighting illegal drugs.
Delos Santos’ death was followed by another outcry over the killing of Carl Angelo Arnaiz, a 19-year-old who police said was killed when he shot it out with officers after robbing a taxi driver last month.
A government forensic expert, however, said Arnaiz apparently was handcuffed, tortured and shot five times, causing his death.
Duterte stressed his administration does not condone extrajudicial killings, although he has repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death in the past.
He sounded astonished over the outcry over the deaths of delos Santos and Arnaiz. “Two killings make it a policy of the Republic of the Philippines?” Duterte asked. “Why would we kill the innocent?” (With The Associated Press/PN)
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