Tacloban City-Local residents, a lawmaker and religious officials expressed shock over the death of a 34-year-old suspected thief under police custody in Maasin City, Southern Leyte.
On Tuesday, December 13, the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas formally filed a homicide case against police officer Staff Sergeant Ronald Gamayon, 36, who arrested Gilbert Ranes in relation to a theft incident at about 7:30 p.m. of December 9, in Barangay Mantahan in Maasin.
“Rest assured that this Police Regional Office will closely monitor this case or similar incidents involving officers under my watch. Here in Eastern Visayas, we do not tolerate misfits among our rank and file,” said Brigadier General Rommel Francisco Marbil, police regional director.
Information released by the Police Regional Office identified Gamayon as an officer assigned to the Provincial Intelligence Unit (PIU) of the Southern Leyte Police Provincial Office (SLPPO).
According to the medical report released by SLPPO, Ranes died from “severe head trauma.”
SLPPO director Colonel Hector Enage said he and the entire police force in the province were “ in sorrow over what happened.”
According to the police regional command, Gamayon has been placed under restrictive custody of SLPPO. Four responding officers of Maasin City Police Station “were already reassigned to the Provincial Office effective December 12,” relative to the incident.
Congressman Christopherson “Coco” Yap, of the Second District of Southern Leyte, also commended the SLPPO and Enage “for responding to this matter with dispatch and transparency, for bringing those responsible for this act of inhumanity to justice, and for reassuring the public that our Philippine National Police (PNP) will not hesitate to prosecute even their own.”
Enage further said that some locals grabbed and beat Ranes after his victim called for help.
Purported videos of the arrest and succeeding incidents that went viral on social media and brought “shock” to the residents showed a man in plain clothing holding an object and assaulting Ranes while he bent over his body on the side of the road amid motorists passing by.
In another video, an unidentified man was heard saying “tiwasan na (finish him off)” in the local dialect.
Several people wearing black shoes were seen around, and a foot rolled Ranes’ body on the floor. A video also showed Ranes being dragged by men in plain clothing and an officer in uniform into what appeared like a police vehicle.
Commenters on social media who saw the alleged videos of the incidents said the suspect was treated “like a pig.”
Marbil also ordered the creation of a special investigation task group ( SITG) “Ranes” for the “thorough investigation” of the cases.
The SITG was composed of Colonel Salvador Alacyang, deputy regional director for operations as the SITG supervisor; Enage as SITG commander; Lieutenant Colonel Jayson Balbarona, acting chief-of-police/member; Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Cruto Jr., Major Glenn Aculana, Major Gracila Sabas, and Captain Ana Maria Gono as members; and Master Sergeant John Ryan Quisado as investigator-on-case/member.
Call for justice
“The power to enforce the law does not give one the power to be judge, jury, and executioner. I find the official police report wanting of details as to the background of his arrest and why a suspected thief ended up in the morgue,” said lawyer Bendever Gerona, who was among the first to publicly condemn the incident.
In a statement posted on his social media account, Gerona called for a “full-blown investigation on this matter and for the prosecution of all those responsible for the death of this suspect, if there is any.”
“If it is to be believed that the suspect has been apprehended by bystanders, and perhaps beaten by them, then there is all the more reason to handle the suspect in a much more humane way than what is shown in the video clip. Di man tawn na baboy,” said Gerona, who hailed from Maasin, a small, close-knit, and deeply-religious community with over 87,000 residents.
“In a civilized society governed by laws, dili justification ang criminal act, labi na jud ug ingani nga kawat ra, para mamatay,” the young lawyer added.
Meanwhile, Carlos Conde, senior researcher at the Asia Division of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, maintained that “police brutality is common in the Philippines, where police officerscommit serious abuses against criminal suspects with impunity.”
“Since the start of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ in 2016, the police have been linked to thousands of extrajudicial killings during drug raids. Many other suspects have also been subjected to torture or mistreatment,” he said.
He cited the case of a police officer who was convicted by a court in November 2022 for the torture of Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman, two teenagers who were targeted as part of the government’s anti-drug campaign, in 2018.
“Philippine authorities need to ensure that police officers are held accountable and that the laws prohibiting police abuse are upheld,” said Carlos in dispatch released on Tuesday.
“Ranes’ family deserves justice, and a thorough and impartial investigation should be undertaken into his apparent wrongful death in police custody,” he added.
‘God bless our cops’
Douglas Macalalag, a resident pastor at Potter’s House Christian Center in Palo town, said he would continue with their spiritual and values formation programs with the police officers in Eastern Visayas despite the incident.
“I will continue. Not all are rotten tomatoes; some are stubborn. But the majority, I think, by God’s grace, they are loyal in the call of service and protect,” said Macalalag, who partnered with the Police Regional Office through their “God Bless Our Cops Movement” since 2003.
He maintained that police need to impose sanctions on the abuser.
Currently, Macalalag is engaging at a police training center in Tacloban City through squad weekly interactive meeting.
“Our mission is ‘God into every cop,’” said Macalalag, as they aimed for “God-centered, family-based, and service-oriented PNP.”
“Assuming that it was really true, the case should have been handled in a different way to uphold the dignity of the suspect who is a human being,” added Monsignor Oscar Cadayona, vicar general of the Diocese of Maasin.
“The Church and the men in uniform at the provincial level have nowadays the program called ‘Give change a chance,’ which is not only for those who used illegal drugs but also, I think, for people who because of circumstances commit all sorts of crimes,” said Cadayona after learning the incident.
The priest disclosed that their regular spiritual partnership with the police force in the province “was only through a regular mass at the police station itself.”
“But cut off during the pandemic. It’s not restored yet,” Cadayona told Manila Standard.