Four Philippine policemen found guilty of Duterte drug war killings

Four Philippine policemen were found guilty on June 18 of killing a father and his son, court officials said, in a rare case of law enforcement officers being prosecuted for taking part in former president Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly drug war.

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The four low-ranking officers were all sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for the shooting deaths of the two victims in a Manila slum during an anti-drug police operation in 2016, Manila regional trial court judge Rowena Alejandria said in her written verdict.

“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,” Judge Alejandria wrote.

Thousands of drug suspects were killed by police and unknown gunmen in a campaign that became the centrepiece of Mr Duterte’s 2016-2022 rule, a crackdown that critics described as state-sponsored extrajudicial killings and is now a subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Mr Luis Bonifacio’s partner, Ms Mary Ann Domingo, cried on her son’s shoulder as they listened to the verdict on two counts of homicide each being read at the cramped northern Manila courtroom.

She later told reporters that she felt the ruling showed “justice still exists”.