Court convicts four Philippine policemen for killing father, son

• Published On: 18 June 2024 at 08:25

Four Philippine police officers were convicted guilty of killing a father and son on Tuesday, court authorities said, in a rare case of law enforcement officers being punished for their involvement in former President Rodrigo Duterte's murderous drug campaign.

The four low-ranking policemen were all sentenced to up to ten years in prison for shooting the two victims in a Manila slum during an anti-drug police operation in 2016, according to Manila regional trial court judge Rowena Alejandria's written ruling, which was read in court on Tuesday.

"It must be worthy to note 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 (Domingo) were killed," concluded Alejandria.

Thousands of drug suspects were killed by police and unknown gunmen in a campaign that became the cornerstone of Duterte's 2016-2022 presidency, a crackdown that critics labelled as state-sponsored extrajudicial executions and is now being investigated by the International Criminal Court.


Mary Ann Domingo, Luis Bonifacio's girlfriend, weeping on her son's shoulder as the verdict on two counts of homicide were read in the tiny northern Manila courtroom.

Manila police officers Virgilio Cervantes, Arnel de Guzman, Johnston Alacre, and Artemio Saguros were also ordered to pay 300,000 pesos ($5,120) in damages to the victim's heirs.

The family claims at than a dozen police officers participated in the nocturnal assault on the northern Manila slum community.


The family said the two were not involved in narcotics and were unarmed when cops opened fire.

The defendants claimed self-defense, stating that the suspects were armed and had shot at them.

However, state prosecutors chose the lesser allegation of homicide against only four policemen instead of murder, which requires intentional intent to kill and carries a harsher penalty.

According to official data, more over 6,000 people have died in police anti-narcotics operations.

However, rights groups estimate that tens of thousands of primarily impoverished men have been slain by officers and vigilantes, despite the lack of evidence linking them to drugs.

Duterte has openly ordered police to kill suspects during anti-drug operations if they considered their lives were under jeopardy.

While the crackdown was highly denounced and prompted an international investigation, only five other police officers have been convicted of killing narcotics suspects.


Three Manila police officers were found guilty in 2018 of murdering a 17-year-old boy in 2017. Two other narcotics policemen were convicted last year for killings in 2016 and 2017, the latter of whom was a South Korean businessman.

According to lawyers, most families are too afraid to pursue their loved ones' murderers or do not have the funds or time to do so under the Philippines' shaky legal system.

The International Criminal Court is investigating the Philippine drug crackdown, which stated in 2021 that "a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy".

Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, hence the probe only covers cases before that date.

President Ferdinand Marcos, who succeeded Duterte, has refused to participate with the ICC investigation, citing Manila's functional judicial system.