According to Singapore’s Straits Times on the 22nd, a Philippine policeman recently killed an old woman and her son she tried to protect coldly. In this regard, Philippine President Duterte, who fought crime with an iron fist, also felt too cruel.
On the evening of the 21st, Duterte said at a televised cabinet meeting: “I don’t think you will escape the severe sanctions of justice, because it was filmed. Even I was stunned… It was unfair and cruel.”
He said he saw a five-minute video that went viral on the Internet showing that on Sunday afternoon in the town of Paniki, Tarac, a 46-year-old police officer Jonel Nuezca shot and killed Ms. Sonya Gregorio, 52, at close range and her.2 His son Frank Gregorio, 5 years old.
Police reported that the matter worsened into a fierce land dispute after the woman set off an air cannon made of PVC pipes and made a loud noise.
Throughout the incident, Ms. Sawyer held her son tightly in her arms and refused to let the furloughed police officer take him away. Before the policeman shot, his underage daughter walked to Ms Sawyer and slapped Sawyer on the arm to let her go of her son.
The girl shouted, “Let go of him! Let him go quickly.” Ms. Sawyer said: Tell [your father] to let go.” When the girl shouted that her father was a policeman, Sawyer replied, “I don’t care!” And mocked the girl.
The policeman threatened Ms. Sawyer: “Do you want me to settle you now?” Then, without warning, he took out his 9mm gun and fired a shot in the head. He then shot Ms. Sawyer’s son and hit him in the head.
Just before he escaped from the scene, he shot Ms. Sawyer in the head, who had fallen to the ground. Dozens of people watched, and at least two people took videos on their mobile phones. The brutal murders sparked a wave of anger against the Philippine government among the public.
But now even Duterte said that the police involved crossed the line. He said, “If you don’t abide by the law, you are barbaric, you kill people, then I’m sorry. It doesn’t fit into any part of our work norms… lock him up and don’t let him out.”
Duterte described Nuesca as an “outlier” in the police force. He said, “There is something wrong with his head” but critics of the president insist that the incident is not an “isolation incident” as his allies call, which should trigger a police reform and even demand that the police crackdown on drug activities be stopped.
Duterte had previously been adamant supporter of the police, and the death toll from his “drug war” had soared to more than 8,000, the report said. Human rights groups reported higher numbers and said that violence in the Philippines continued even as it entered the lockdown of the epidemic in March.
Jonal Nueska, a police officer involved, faces murder charges for shooting a neighbor
Duterte attributed most of the killings to turf battles between drug gangs and defended the police involved, saying that they only returned fire when they were shot.
He also said that he would pardon any police officer convicted of murder in carrying out law enforcement operations. Rep. Rufi-Biasson said: “The government knows that this bloody murder is no longer an isolated case. Bloodthirsty police are everywhere. This is a symptom that may put the police force in trouble.
Brigadier General Ildbrandi Osana, spokesman for the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the Philippine Police Force had “initiated a lot of reforms”, with more than 4,800 officers in violation of office removed from their posts and about 17,000 police officers facing administrative litigation.
