MANILA, Philippines – A victim of the March 2021 “Bloody Sunday” operation is seeking the suspension of the police colonel and other cops who took part in the operation that led to her arrest and the death of other activists.
Nimfa Lanzanas filed a motion for preventive suspension on Friday, September 20, with the Office of the Ombudsman against Police Colonel Lito Patay and other 10 police officers who took part in the operation. National Union of People’s Lawyers assisted Lanzanas in the filing.
Patay was the chief of Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation Detection Group regional field unit in Calabarzon when the Bloody Sunday operation happened. Before the operation, Patay was the chief of Batasan station in Quezon City, when it was considered the most lethal station during the Duterte administration’s drug war in 2016.
The Bloody Sunday operation saw the death of six activists and arrest of nine others, including Lanzanas, a senior citizen volunteering as a paralegal for human rights group Karapatan. Lanzanas only walked free from detention in 2022 after the court junked the illegal possession of firearms case filed against her by the cops.
“I languished in jail for 15 months because of trumped up charges — time that could have been used to serve victims of rights violations. While [Police Colonel] Patay spent four hours as Davao City police chief, he is still in active service and deflecting the influx of complaints here and abroad. It is only just that he faces these charges rather than be in the position to damage other lives,” said Lanzanas.
“Patay’s deadly record should not be plainly glossed over and have his work left alone. The havoc of Bloody Sunday should not be treated as regular litter only needing to be swept. All eyes are on us, literally and figuratively, as the world deliberates how the country delivers justice for victims of drug-related and political tokhang,” Defend Southern Tagalog spokesperson Charm Maranan said.
Lanzanas’ motion was the latest legal action filed in relation to the deadly operation considered as a crackdown against activists under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Two murder complaints were filed for the deaths of labor leader Manny Asuncion and fisherfolk-couple Ariel Evangelista and Ana Mariz “Chai” Lemita-Evangelista in the operation, but both of the suits have already been junked. – Rappler.com