Gun-grabbing killings

Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila has come to the defense of police officers Ramir Dimagiba and Rodel Benitez, who were slapped homicide charges by the Manila Police District for the fatal shooting of two detainees in the MPD headquarters on the night of March 13. Per the police account, detainee Roderick Soliveres, 28, was emptying the cell potty in the toilet on orders of Dimagiba when he grabbed the cop’s gun, which accidentally went off and hit his cohort and co-detainee Cecilio Bacolo Jr., 19. Benitez then rushed to the scene and shot Soliveres dead. A day earlier, Lim was reported as having extracted from Soliveres and Bacolo a confession that they had raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl.

A former MPD chief himself, Lim said Dimagiba and Benitez deserved commendation rather than an investigation. But the mayor misses the point. A commendation for what? For killing detained suspects in their custody? At the least, the episode should show another instance of police incompetence. The fact that it took place right in the headquarters of “Manila’s Finest,” as the MPD historically bills itself, should show that police incompetence has become worse. Or that policemen have lost their mystique. Apparently, gone are the days when a citizen would flee at the sight of cops for fear of being fleeced or of suffering the brunt of their drunken illegal discharge. The botched rescue of foreign tourists taken hostage by an ex-cop at Rizal Park in 2010 (in which Mayor Lim and the MPD were involved, and which resulted in the Philippines’ humiliation in the global community) and the toilet incident on March 13 have exposed Manila policemen for what they are: not the “Finest,” but bungling cops of the Mack Sennet Keystone variety; characters straight from, not “CSI” or “Hawaii Five-O,” but slapstick.

But what happened on March 13 is not funny. Two men who had allegedly confessed to raping and killing a child in order to satisfy their lust after reading smut were killed while in police detention. While some people may claim that Soliveres and Bacolo got their bloody but just desserts for their confessed actions, it is incumbent on the state to put them through the judicial process and, if found guilty, impose on them the maximum punishment. No shortcuts.

Of course, for Mayor Lim, who earned the moniker “Dirty Harry” for his controversial anticrime methods, no question lingers. The cops gave Soliveres his due for allegedly grabbing their gun, accidentally killing his cohort, and trying to kill them. The incident is as bright as day for Lim, who had obviously been convinced of their guilt even before he got their confession. (When the two men were presented to him on March 12, the mayor asked them pointblank in Filipino: “Can you still sleep soundly after what you’ve done?”)

Commission on Human Rights Chair Loretta Rosales and the National Police Commission are backing an investigation of the March 13 incident, noting an apparent pattern involving MPD detainees being killed after allegedly snatching their police escort’s firearm. The circumstances are indeed suspicious. Last month, Chinese national Gong Shu Yang, a suspect in the murder of his girlfriend Zhao Chun Lan, allegedly shot himself after taking his escort’s pistol while on board a service vehicle on the way to the prosecutor’s office. Also last month, a criminology student arrested for allegedly shooting a cop was also killed for purportedly snatching the gun of an officer who was taking him to a hospital for a checkup.

The fact that policemen have become the target of gun-snatching by their detainees should indicate a new criminal pathology or a worsening laxity on the cops’ part to protect their weapons. If they can’t even prevent criminals from snatching their firearms, then how can they be entrusted with public safety and order? The question arises: Have Manila cops become wimps and hopelessly incompetent?

On the other hand, there is the suspicion of extrajudicial killing. But if policemen shortcut the rules or do away with them altogether, on the assumption that suspects are guilty anyway and should not enjoy due process and the presumption of innocence, they foster a self-serving regime where no rules apply, competence is considered alien, and ruthlessness becomes the norm.

Peace-loving and law-abiding citizens should not entrust public safety and order to savages and cold-blooded killers.