SOME policemen allegedly linked to illegal drugs have sought the help of the Catholic Church and have said they are willing to expose all they know about the wave of drug-related killings in the country, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said Monday.
“Some law enforcers have come forward confidentially to us, their spiritual leaders, to seek sanctuary, succor and protection,” CBCP president and Dagupan-Pangasinan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said in a statement.
“They have expressed their desire to come out in the open about their participation in extrajudicial killings and summary executions. Their consciences are troubling them.
• In other developments:
Senator Antonio Trillanes on Monday presented the affidavit of Vincent Tacorda, a former policeman who was allegedly ordered by his boss to kill drug suspects.
Trillanes presented Tacorda’s statement during the resumption of the alleged drug-related killings at the hands of policemen, including those of teenagers Kian Delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz.
Tacorda claims that Senior Supt. Jesus Martirez, then Catanduanes police chief, instructed him and another subordinate in July 2016 to deliver an “accomplishment of five to 10 deaths of drug personalities.”
“He [Martirez] later on admitted to us that he will be relieved from his post if there is no ‘death of drug personalities’ that will be delivered in his area,” says Tacorda’s affidavit.
• A policeman from Catanduanes who resigned after claiming that some policemen were allegedly being paid to kill drug suspects has recanted his statement, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Monday.
Lacson, chairman of the Senate public order committee investigating the recent killing of young victims in the government’s war against illegal drugs, said former Police Officer I Vincent Tacorda was invited to the hearing in connection with his affidavit dated May 10, 2017 but opted not to attend.
He claims in his affidavit the extrajudicial killing of drug suspects and the planting of evidence by policemen. He said he was ordered to deliver an “accomplishment of five to 10 deaths of drug suspects.”
Villegas said the church is willing to provide sanctuary to the policemen, including their families if necessary, but they must be able to present evidence to their allegations.
With the help of independent volunteer lawyers, he said, “we will look prudently into the sincerity of their motives and the veracity of their stories.”
The archbishop said the Church will not induce the policemen to speak or make any allegations if they wish to testify in any investigations.
“Within the bounds of Church and civil laws, we express our willingness to grant them accommodation, shelter and protection. The hospitality, comfort and acceptance that they seek from the Church will be attended to,” the prelate said.
“If their preference is to stay with us in the Church, they will not be turned over to the State under its own witness protection program,” Villegas said in a statement.
“In the areas of pastoral counseling and values formation, the Archdiocese of Lingayen, Dagupan will be the loving teacher and mother of our law enforcers. Let us be guardian angels for one another.”
In a previous statement, Villegas threw his support behind two self-confessed Davao Death Squad members, Edgar Motabato and retired police officer Arturo Lascañas.
Motabato and Lascañas have implicated President Rodrigo Duterte in the DDS, a vigilante group that allegedly killed hundreds of suspected criminals in Davao City where the chief executive was once mayor.
Duterte has repeatedly denied ordering killings either as President or mayor.
More than 3,800 suspects who allegedly resisted arrest have been killed in anti-drug operations since Duterte took office.
Human rights groups, however, blame thousands of vigilante-style killings on the law enforcers, a claim that the government denies.
