The fault of one is not the fault of all, Malacañang said on Tuesday, defending the Philippine National Police from the “bugok” (bad egg) cop who was filmed shooting a defenseless woman dead in Quezon City.
“Wala po tayong magagawa, kahit anong organization mayroong paisa-isang mga bugok at ito pong pangyayaring ito…ito po iyong mga bugok,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said in a virtual presser.
Roque was referring to Police Master Sgt. Hensie Zinampan, the drunk cop who shot 52-year-old Lilibeth Valdez dead on Monday night.
“Pero please, we have hundreds of thousands in the ranks of our policemen and we hear of one or two cases of this nature. Hindi po totoo na malawakang maraming bugok sa kapulisan, propesyonal po sila dahil sa day one ng kanilang training ay pinasok na po sa kanilang isip na bilang mga tagapagpatupad ng batas, sila mismo ay dapat sumunod sa batas,” Roque said.
Video footage of the murder has circulated across social media platforms, where Zinampan can be seen pulling Valdez’s hair and shooting her in the neck.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said the case was “gravely concerning.”
“This incident is gravely concerning as we expect our police to ‘serve and protect,’ and not be at the frontlines of violating rights, let alone arbitrarily curtailing one’s right to life,” CHR spokeswoman Jacqueline de Guia said in a statement.
“After a string of recent deaths and killings being attributed to police officers, we urge the PNP to translate commitments of internal cleansing into actual reduction of cases of human rights violations on the ground. One death is one too many. We urge the government to address these violations with the larger view that the protection of human rights is primarily a State obligation,” she added. John Ezekiel J. Hirro