JUSTICE

MOURNING IN RAGE. Angelica Arrioja narrates how raiding policemen in masks allegedly forced their way into their bedroom, dragged out her partner Gener Rondina, who was pleading for his life, before he ended up dead in an alleged shootout with the police. Behind her is the casket bearing the remains of Rondina at his wake at the barangay chapel in Sitio Sta. Theresita, Barangay Carreta, Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Gener Rondina was acknowledged by his family as a drug peddler. But he was not armed and had raised his hands in surrender when the police came to get him last Friday.

He pleaded for his life before he was gunned down by masked anti-narcotics police operatives at dawn on Friday, insisted his live-in partner yesterday.

“Nagtuo ko og ila lang siyang dakpon, apan ila man gyud diay kining gipatay. (I thought he would just be arrested. But the police killed him),” a stoic Angelica Arrioja, 21, told Cebu Daily News last night.

The family of Gener, the son of a retired policeman, SPO4 Generoso Rondina, is now asking the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7) to step in and conduct an investigation into the operation that led to Gener’s death.

“Hustisya lang unta ang among gipangayo karon. (We want justice to be served),” Arrioja said, her hands clinched in suppressed rage as she sat in a chair right in front of the casket that bore the remains of her partner, whose wake was being held at a village chapel in Barangay Carreta, Cebu City.

Policemen barged into Gener’s house in Carreta to serve a search warrant issued by the court on the drug suspect.

Gener, 38, was killed after he allegedly engaged police operatives in a shootout, said Supt. Joie Yape, head of the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (RAIDSOTG).

He suffered at least four gunshot wounds on the different parts of his body.

Arrioja said she and Gener were sound asleep inside their bedroom at around 3 a.m. last Friday when they were awakened by a loud banging on their front door.

She said they quickly got up and noticed several policemen entering their house.

Afraid of what might happen to them, Arrioja said they tried to remove the air-conditioning unit inside their room so they could escape.

But when they peeped through the window, they saw some policemen waiting outside their house.

“Na-rattle na mi ato. Iya ko gisugo nga ingon ang mga pulis nga mo-surrender na siya. (We didn’t know what to do. He asked me to inform the police that he would surrender to them),” Arrioja told CDN.

Carrying long firearms, operatives went inside their house and went up to their room, narrated Arrioja.

Arrioja said she and Gener hugged each other when the police entered their room.

She could not recognize any of the operatives because they were wearing masks.

“Napakiluoy siya (Gener). Iya giingnan ang mga pulis nga ‘Di na ko mousab, sir. Mo-surrender na ko.’ Naluoy ko niya (He pleaded to the policemen.

He told them, ‘I won’t do it again. I will surrender.’ I pitied him),” she said.

Arrioja recalled that Gener held his hands up in clear surrender. That was the last time she saw Gener alive.

While she was escorted by the police down the stairs, Arrioja heard bursts of gunfire.

“Wala gyud intawon to siya nisukol. Gani, wala man to siyay armas. (Gener didn’t engage the police in a shootout. He didn’t even have a gun),” Arrioja said.

When she and Gener met two months ago, Arrioja said she advised him to stop peddling or using illegal drugs.

“Ako siya giingnan nga para nako, undang na anang imong bisyo. (I told him to stop selling illegal drugs for my sake),” Arrioja said.

From what she knew, Arrioja said Gener had quit selling drugs.

Marriage postponed

Arrioja and Gener were supposed to marry last Nov. 18.

But the victim’s father, Generoso, said he advised his son to postpone the civil wedding to next year since he heard rumors that Gener was a target of a police operation.

For several years, the former policeman repeatedly advised his son to stop peddling illegal drugs.

“Isip amahan, gusto ko nga adunay maayong kaugmaon ang akong mga anak. (As a father, I wanted all my children to have a good future),” the father of eight told CDN.

VILLARINO

Generoso, 63, said he was afraid something bad would happen to Gener if the latter would continue selling illegal drugs. What he dreaded to happen eventually took place early dawn Friday.

Gener’s father could not believe that his son resisted arrest.

“Suhito ko sa pamalakad sa pulis. Gikan gud ko anang trabahoa. Gituyo gyud na nila og patay ang akong anak. (I am familiar with how policemen operate. I used to be part of the organization. I know they intentionally killed my son),” SPO4 Rondina said.

He said they will ask the CHR to conduct a probe on his son’s death, hoping that justice will be served.

“Sobra ra gyud ang ilang gibuhat. Dili nato komkomon ang balaod sa atong mga kamot. Mosubay lang unta ta sa balaod. (What they did to my son was too much. We ought not to take the law into our hands. We should let the law take its own course),” the retired policeman said.

The grieving father yesterday requested to be brought to the hospital after he felt dizzy and weak.

“Nasagmuyo ko sa gidangatan sa akong anak. Wa gyud ko magkuwang pagpahimangno kaniya nga moundang na nianang bisyoha. Unsaon ta man, ipalapos ra man sa pikas dunggan. (I am deeply saddened with what happened to my son. I never failed to remind him to stop his involvement in illegal drugs. But what could I do, my request fell on deaf ears),” SPO4 Rondina said.

Gener was the third of eight siblings.

“Nagsige ko og ampo nga wala lay dautang mahitabo kaniya, apan karon nahitabo na gyud ang akong gikahadlokan. (I kept on praying that nothing bad would happen to him. But what I feared the most happened),” he added.

CHR: File a complaint first

Leo Villarino, lead investigator of CHR-7, said they would want to investigate the case of Rondina, but they would need to the family to file a complaint first.

At least 172 cases that bore the marks of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects are now being investigated by CHR-7 since late May 2016. Most of the cases investigated by the commission involved policemen, Villarino said.

The reports on the suspected extrajudicial killings were culled mainly from news reports.

So far, Villarino said at least 40 police officers were required to submit their reports on cases of alleged extrajudicial killings.

“Victims of extrajudicial killings may come to our office (to file formal complaints),” he said.

Last Friday, the police also targeted Gener’s sister Jocelyn, who was also allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade.

Jocelyn Rondina, 42, was, however, not around when the police barged into her residence in Barangay Tejero, Cebu City.

Police instead arrested Jocelyn’s live-in partner Rewel Villanueva and their 21-year-old son Francis John who were caught in possession of shabu.

About P430,000 worth of illegal drugs were seized from them.

Charges for violating Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, particularly for possession of shabu, will be filed against the two suspects before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.

TALIÑO

Ready for probe

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), defended the police team that killed Gener.

“Based on the report, the suspect engaged the police in a shootout so our operatives had to fight back,” he said.

Taliño maintained that when drug suspects placed the lives of the police in danger, the latter should protect themselves by neutralizing the target.

He said he nonetheless welcomed any investigation that would be conducted by CHR-7.

“We’re open to any probe. I too do not condone abuses by our policemen. But so far, our operations are legitimate,” Taliño said.

Based on the records of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), at least 142 drug suspects were killed in an alleged shootout with policemen in the region since July 1. Nineteen of them were killed in different operations in Cebu City.

At least 201 other drug suspects were gunned down by still unknown assailants in the region.