rise up. Message of support/solidarity placed beside 17-year- old Kian Loyd Delos Santos’ family home in Barangay 260, Caloocan City on Saturday, August 19, 2017. The Grade 11 student was killed during an anti-drugs police operation on the night of August 16, 2017.
The drug raid in Caloocan City that killed a 17-year-old Grade 11 pupil would not happen in Cebu City.
This was the assurance of Senior Supt. Joel Doria, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) director.
“During our operation, personal safety and, of course, respect for human rights are the utmost priorities,” Doria said.
Kian “Ian” Loyd delos Santos, a Grade 11 student from Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Caloocan City, was shot dead by Police Community Precinct (PCP) 7.
Authorities, however, claimed that the teenager was killed when he fired at policemen who were conducting a “One Time Big Time” operation against drug and crime suspects on Tuesday night.
Based on initial investigations, about a dozen members of the PCP 7 led by PO2 Arnes Oares were conducting “Oplan Galugad” operations around 8 p.m. on Wednesday in Libis Baisa, Barangay 160, in Caloocan City, when the teenager fired at them with a .45-caliber pistol.
But footage of the close circuit television camera of the village showed the boy being dragged by two policemen.
It jibed with the statement of a witness who claimed seeing two policemen dragging Delos Santos to a corner where the boy was handed a gun and was told to shoot it and run. Crying, Delos Santos did what he was told but was shot dead instead.
“It will not happen in Cebu City. We conduct briefings with our station commanders before every operation sa kung anong dapat at hindi dapat gawin (the dos and don’ts in operations),” Doria said.
He said all CCPO personnel who conducted drug bust operations had undergone seminars on human rights.
They keep on reminding the police operatives on the protocol in conducting operations, he added.
“We have police operational procedures on how to handle several situations,” Doria said.
But he admitted that there were times when the subjects fought back at the operatives.
In cases like these, he added the police would try to neutralize the subjects by disabling them. “Hanga’t maari i-subdue yung suspect. Mostly sa ating operation naman nagsusurender sila (As much as possible, we try to subdue the suspects. Most of our operations, the suspects surrendered),” Doria said.
The city police, he added, had also rescued minors used in some illegal drugs activities during their One Time Big Time Operations.
Some of these minors, Doria said, were even armed but not one of them attempted to fight back at the raiding team.
The CCPO conducts a weekly One Time Big Time Operation dubbed as Oplan Pokemon where most minors had been rescued from suspected drug pushers.
During his speech in Ozamis City last Thursday, Duterte said he has a new list of drug personalities which he gave to Director General Ronald dela Rosa, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief.
Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, police director for Central Visayas, said that they had not received a copy of the list.
“We will wait for that. And every information (we get) we will validate them and if it’s true, we will conduct appropriate operation,” Espino said.
In the meantime, the anti-drug operations in Cebu continued.
An alleged drug peddler was shot dead in a buy-bust operation by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas agents in Barrio Luz, Cebu City, past midnight on Saturday.
PDEA-7 claimed that four sachets of shabu (crystal meth) worth P25,000 were seized from Eddie Apura, a resident of Barrio Luz.