Four members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were convicted on Tuesday for the killing of a father and son, a rare legal action against law enforcement officers involved in former President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody drug war.
Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Rowena Alejandria sentenced the lower-ranking officers to a maximum of 10 years in prison for the 2016 shooting deaths of Luis Bonifacio, 45, and his 19-year-old son Gabriel Bonifacio in a Manila slum during an anti-drug operation.
The verdict emphasized that the officers acknowledged their involvement in the operation that resulted in the fatalities, as stated in Judge Alejandria's written judgment.
“It must be noted that the accused themselves did not deny their presence and participation in the police operation conducted, the same event where the victims Luis and Gabriel were killed," Alejandria wrote.
Manila policemen Virgilio Cervantes, Arnel de Guzman, Johnston Alacre, and Artemio Saguros appeared in court dressed in their blue police uniforms. They were ordered to individually pay P400,000 in damages to the heirs of the victims.
Following the court session, the convicted officers left without speaking to reporters, maintaining their silence.
The family of the victims alleged that more than a dozen police officers participated in the nighttime raid on their community in northern Manila. They contended that their loved ones, who were not involved in drugs, were unarmed when the police opened fire.
In defense, the defendants claimed they acted in self-defense, asserting that the suspects were armed and had fired at them first. State prosecutors, however, chose to pursue the lesser charge of homicide against only four officers, rather than murder, which carries a heavier penalty and requires proof of deliberate intent to kill.
Throughout Duterte's presidency from 2016 to 2022, thousands of drug suspects were allegedly killed by police and unidentified assailants in a crackdown widely criticized as state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings.
In 2018, a local court convicted three police officers for the killing of student Kian delos Santos during an anti-illegal drugs operation in August 2017.
Presiding Judge Rodolfo Azucena Jr. of Caloocan RTC Branch 125 found Police Officer 3 (PO3) Arnel Oares, PO1 Jeremias Pereda and PO1 Jerwin Cruz guilty of delos Santos’ murder and sentenced them to reclusion perpetua.
The officers were also ordered to pay P100,000 in civil indemnity, P100,000 in moral damages, P45,000 in actual damages, and P100,000 as exemplary damages to the victim's heirs.
This controversial campaign is currently the subject of investigation by the International Criminal Court.