Philippines sacks 1,200 cops over grisly killings

manila — A Philippine official on Friday ordered an entire city police force off the job in metropolitan Manila after some of its members were suspected in gruesome killings of three teenagers and others were seen on surveillance cameras robbing a house.

The 1,200-strong Caloocan city police force will be relieved in batches and replaced, said metropolitan Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde. The officers will undergo 45 days of retraining, after which those facing no charges can be reassigned to other stations.

The Department of Justice has started an investigation based on a murder and torture complaint against four Caloocan policemen allegedly linked to the killing of 17-year-old student Kian delos Santos during an anti-drug raid last month.

The parents of two other teenagers — 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz and 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman — have also filed murder, torture and planting of evidence complaints against two Caloocan policemen.

Last week, security-camera video purportedly showed 13 policemen robbing a house during an alleged drug raid.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on drugs, which has left thousands of suspects dead, has come under renewed scrutiny since police gunned down delos Santos. Police described him as a drug dealer who fired at officers during a raid, but his family and witnesses said the student was shot as he pleaded for his life.

Witnesses pointed to evidence, including a village security video, which they said showed two police officers dragging delos Santos away shortly before shots rang out and he was found fatally shot in the head, holding a pistol with his left hand although his parent said he was right-handed. Police officers testified at a Senate hearing that delos Santos was not the man seen being dragged in the video, although several witnesses doubted the police statement.