MIDDLE- and low-ranking police officers are often put in a serious dilemma when their superiors order them to “neutralize” an individual, or to conduct a “special ops,” meaning to kill a particular person.  

Languishing in jail now are a former chief of police and two policemen in a city in Quezon province. The cops had been convicted of killing a local official’s son on orders of the chief of police. Local narratives from people familiar with the incident said the chief threatened his subordinates that they would be killed if they did not follow his downright illegal orders. The three are now serving time in prison, as the judicial system sometimes proves that it works well.

It is pitiful that this incident isn’t an isolated case in the Philippine National Police (PNP), whether all the PNP chiefs from Panfilo Lacson to Ronald dela Rosa to Rommel Francisco Marbil admit it or not.  Human lives, especially those of individuals not in step with a current political dispensation, are seemingly dispensable.

‘… these incidents of high PNP officials ordering their subordinate to commit murder for whatever purpose are collectively a gnawing rot in the organization that must be exorcised.’

It is too early to judge who among the two sides in the 2020 murder of PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga, also a former police general, is telling the truth, but now that a testimony-confession before the House quad committee by a key participant has been made, it is up to our law enforcement authorities, prosecutors, and the courts to step in. 

Lt. Col. Santi Mendoza of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, at a House committee probe last week on extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration, alleged that National Police Commission member Edilberto Leonardo and former PCSO general manager Royina Garma, both retired police colonels, were the brains behind Barayuga’s murder. Barayuga was a member of the PMA Class 1983, the same class of National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, who then offered a P1 million reward for information leading to the solution of the Barayuga assassination.

Mendoza told the House committee that he was ordered to arrange the murder of Barayuga allegedly by Garma and Leonardo for P300,000.

In the same hearing, Garma and Leonardo denied the accusation but it did not deter PNP chief General Marbil to order the reopening of the murder case. He tasked newly appointed PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torres III, fresh from his exploits at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound in Davao, to lead the investigation and probable filing of charges against those involved.

Marbil promised that the CIDG will reevaluate all evidence in light of the new testimony and work closely with other relevant agencies to ensure that the process is thorough, impartial and transparent.  

“We are committed to uncovering the truth, regardless of the position or power of those involved. The public can rest assured that we will hold those responsible accountable,” Marbil said.

While it is reassuring that the PNP will be acting with fairness and dispatch so that the legal process will take its course, these incidents of high PNP officials ordering their subordinate to commit murder for whatever purpose are collectively a gnawing rot in the organization that must be exorcised.