“‹"These are the stories of Djastin, Danilo and JJ."
If one had doubts that crimes against humanity are being committed in the conduct of the war against drugs, this will be dispelled with the stories of Djastin Lopez, Danilo Dacumos, and David John Jezeel “JJ” David. Their stories are memorialized in the Communication and Complaint filed by Rise Up for Life and for Rights, assisted by the National Union of People’s Lawyers, with the International Criminal Court.
In my column last Saturday, I highlighted the significance of President Duterte’s admission that he is responsible for the EJKs going on in the Philippines. I also described two cases highlighted in the Rise Up complaint, that of Bernabe Sabangan and Salvador Locasia Jr, In this article, using the Rise Up document as a source, I examine cases where the police portray their victims as petty criminals in order to link drugs to criminality. As in the previous cases, the narratives are taken from the testimonies of the relatives and from police reports.
Let us start with Djastin Lopez, who was killed in the railroad tracks of Tondo, Manila, a usually safe pace for whiling away time with friends. Lopez was perched on the tracks drinking softdrinks with a friend when a group of armed policemen suddenly came running. Panicked, Djastin ran, but tripped along the tracks in front of one armed man. Witnesses, including Mary Rose Dela Cruz, from whom Djastin had bought softdrinks, said he fell on his back on the railroad tracks. People nearby attested that he raised his hands and pleaded to the men, “huwag po, huwag po, suko na po ako.” The policeman shot him and shoved him down. Djastin was seen convulsing violently, possibly because he had epilepsy. Seemingly taken aback, the policeman slapped Djastin’s face and shot him again. He slapped Djastin again, checking if Djastin was still moving. Other policemen also came to see for themselves what was the matter. They also shot Djastin, lying bloody on the tracks.
The official police report stated that the incident was a buy-bust operation. But upon inquiry by Djastin‘s family, policemen tried to turn the story around, saying that he was a suspect in a murder of a tricycle driver a month prior.
Danilo Dacumos’s story is just as sordid. He lived with his family in a big slum area in Caloocan City and was often caught petty gambling. He probably ended up on a drug list, says his family, because of prejudices. Danilo was caught in April 2017 playing cards with friends and was released after a few days Several months later the police came back and barged into their one-room home in August 2017, at around 10:30 pm, while his wife Purisima and their grandchildren were already in bed. Seconds later, Purisima says she saw the police chief fire his armalite through the doorway. Another policeman fired his pistol at something, or someone, inside the house, she recalls. A policeman told Danilo’s daughter-in-law, who was in the apartment room above Purisima‘s,”•[s]ana pinatakas niyo na lang ang tatay niyo dahil yan ang utos ni Duterte, na patayin ang mga adik (You should have made him flee because that is the order of Duterte, to kill addicts.) Danilo sustained three gunshot wounds on his neck, one gunshot wound above his ear, another gunshot wound on his hand, abrasions and a fractured arm. The police claimed Danilo shot at them first.
Finally, there is the terrible, frightening story of David John Jezreel David, nicknamed “JJ”, a hotel room attendant in a Pasay City Inn. He was last seen alive on January 19, 2017, when after his shift that ended early morning, he said goodbye to his boss, and then took on his friend as passenger on his motorcycle home. His father next saw him in the hospital morgue, cold and lifeless.
After haranguing and pulling strings, police returned JJ‘s motorcycle—repainted black—to the family. They all next met at the prosecutor‘s office, where police had filed drug selling charges against JJ. The police report says JJ, his companion Kim Ocenar, and one George Yap were killed by operatives of Police Station 11 of the Manila Police District in Binondo, Manila, in an alleged buy-bust operation. Police reports claim that the three were armed drug suspects who fought back against the police during the operation, sustained wounds, and were brought dead-on-arrival at Justice Abad Santos General Hospital.
JJ, Kim, and George had no record of relation to the drug trade in their respective areas, and were probably accosted somewhere. JJ‘s father Dennise says his son might have been flagged along Jones Bridge and taken into custody because JJ only had a student driver‘s permit. The arrival of the bodies of JJ, Kim and George at the hospital were covered by Reuters in a chilling special report “•Dead on Arrival. The report tracks procedural issues and mistakes by the police in the course of investigation, and shows their horrible indifference. In a damning clip inside the hospital grounds, after something falls off one of the dead men‘s pockets, a policeman casually puts it back in. The police later claims sachets of shabu were found in JJ‘s pocket. Dennise, thoroughly aggrieved, believes that the case was intentionally filed to portray his son as a criminal.
In October 2016, Madam Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, warned the Philippines about “worrying reported extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers and users in the Philippines, which may have led to over 3,000 deaths in the past three months.” She said she was “deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public statements of high officials of the Republic of the Philippines seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage State forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force.”
Madam Bensouda, a lawyer’s lawyer, at once a brilliant, collected and deliberate person, then pointed out that extra-judicial killings may fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC “if they are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population pursuant to a State policy to commit such an attack. She then made clear: “any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable to prosecution before the Court.
The cases of Dacumos, David, and Lopex and that of Sabangan and Locasia are no doubt crimes against humanity. Because justice for them and their families cannot be obtained here in the country, the latter have rightly chosen the International Criminal Court as the right place to go to. While my preference has always been for us to and our domestic institutions to hold people responsible for EJKs accountable, it is clear that such justice is not forthcoming from such institutions. That is why I support the Rise Up Communication and Complaint and urge the ICC Prosecutor to conclude the preliminary communication and to begin the next stage of these proceedings, the formal investigation that will surely lead to indictment and issuance of international arrest warrants against those who have admitted and are accountable for crimes against humanity in our country.
