“I’m happy that the families could gather at an event like this. You get to mingle with other families whose relatives were victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK), not just your own family,” said Purisima Dacomos, 57 years old, in an interview with Manila Today.
It is her first time participating in a Kumustahan, a year-end and Christmas party event organized by human rights organizations for the families of victims of EJK. Here, families could freely express their grief, rage, and aspirations as they continue to wage justice for the 30,000 felled by the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
“[These kinds of events] remind you how we must always unite and work together. Stand together and fight for justice. Only then can justice be obtained,” Dacomos continued.
Remembering the departed
Dacomos wistfully noted how loving and doting her husband, Danilo was before everything happened.
“He was a good person. He did not like to pick fights. He loved his grandchildren more than his children,” Dacomos chuckled. “Isn’t that usually the case? When you become grandparents, you’ll love your grandchildren more. He’s closer to his grandkids than his own,” she recalled.
She conceded that while her husband was known to be kind and loved by his own family, he was not one without faults. His history of using drugs was a contentious point.
“I knew that he was a small-time user. Influenced by his friends. He may have used drugs but he never sold any,” she stated. “But to be killed because you were a user for a few times? He didn’t deserve that.”
Dacomos recounted the night Danilo was killed. At the time, her community in Bagong Silang, North Caloocan became a hotbed for extrajudicial killings. Raids and nightly shootings were seemingly becoming the norm for the residents, especially in their own community.
She added that shootings were happening almost every night. In the morning, news about somebody’s recent death would become normal fare in the communities. At night, people were too scared to venture outside and nobody attempted to go out at night.
“We were raided twice in 2017. One was in April when they arrested my husband and even took some of our personal belongings. He was held up at the station. I had to collect funds for them to release him. The second time was four months later, in August. That’s where he died,” Dacomos shared.
Turning emotional, Dacomos narrated that all of their family members were together when the incident happened. At 11:00 in the evening, when almost all of them went to bed, two officers in civilian clothing entered their house and their bedroom. Dacomos immediately carried her three-year-old grandchild while intercepting the police.
“That was a time where you don’t know if they’ll kill just about anybody. I carried a child with me to ensure they wouldn’t hurt us,” she tearfully said.
Danilo was left inside the room, Dacomos continued, as she and three of her grandchildren were made to leave.
“We were just nearby. I could still see what was going on inside. I could still hear them. I saw the officer point the gun at my husband. Danilo held his hands up as if to surrender. But they still shot him. He had gunshots in his palm and his chest. Even when an hour has passed since he died, I still held on to this hope that he’s still alive,” Dacomos wept.
When her children residing on the upper floor of their house alighted and saw the prone body of their father, that was when she realized that Danilo’s truly gone.
Dacomos recalled the two long hours they were made to endure during the whole ordeal.
“When the shooting happened, there was not a single soul outside our neighborhood. All the doors were tightly shut, but police officers stood in front of each house. After the officers who shot my husband left, there was a nearby vehicle already waiting at the end of the street from the local funeral parlor. Then the media came, followed by the SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives). When the officers who shot my husband reappeared later for an interview with the media, they were already wearing their uniforms,” Dacomos shook her head.
“Wearing their uniforms while telling the media that he ‘fought back’. ‘Nanlaban’? But the truth was they shot my defenseless husband in civilian clothing.”
Picking up the pieces
Starting life again was hard for Dacomos, she said, especially since Danilo’s income doing odd jobs at construction sites were necessary earnings to fund their children and grandchildren’s living and education.
“I earn a small income washing clothes. He’s doing odd jobs to make ends meet. When he was gone, it’s harder for us financially,” she shared. Yet more than their financial situation, the trauma and fear embedded by that night took longer to move on from.
Dacomos remembered not being able to organize Danilo’s funeral due to the trauma she experienced. Her eldest took over the preparations, while she and her grandchild went to their province to recover.
“I didn’t go to the wake and the burial. My grandchild couldn’t bear to stay at the wake. He was so shocked at what happened to his beloved grandfather that he couldn’t speak. I was so scared that they would come back for us. We don’t have any means to fight, we’re only poor. We only stayed away for a month. Came back the second month after, but it was still scary. Killings still abound,” Dacomos, turning emotional once more, shared.
Finding justice for Danilo remained an elusive pursuit ever since. According to her, no follow-up investigations were made after the incident happened. Even obtaining a police report is frustrating. They were only able to get a copy of the police report a year after Danilo’s death, through the help of Rise Up, an organization catering support for the families of the victims of EJKs.
The police report enraged Dacomos even more, as it stated fraudulent claims about her husband’s death.
“The report stated that my husband was embroiled in a shooting. That he was shooting someone and the police only responded. That’s not what happened. That’s a lie,” she vehemently stated.
On the quest for justice
It took years for Dacomos to speak up about her experience. Danilo’s death opened the doors to her affiliation with Rise Up. She said that the organization helped her family obtain the police report and made an effort to know their stories.
Eight years after the ordeal, Dacomos found herself in the streets and even in the halls of the House of Representatives, campaigning for justice along with the other bereaved families.
“Before, I do not speak at mobilizations. I join them, but I’m too ashamed to talk. I used to be apprehensive because I don’t like people talking about me or my family in a bad way because of what happened,” she quietly said.
Dacomos shared that others had experienced a certain type of stigma associated with families whose members were caught in the crossfire during the War on Drugs.
“Now, I’m not scared to talk. We need to talk. The families need to come together to seek justice. If the 30,000 families who lost their loved ones unite and fight for justice, we can do more for our campaign,” she said.
The recent traction on the probe regarding the drug war in the Quad Committee Hearing sent a glimmer of hope to Dacomos and the others, she mused. She mentioned sitting at the controversial hearing wherein Duterte appeared.
“I was a few seats behind him. Hearing him tell those things angered me so much. He was so crass as if he had no breeding. He and the politicians and officials who follow him shouldn’t be allowed to hold public office. They’re not the leaders that we need,” Dacomos stated.
Between the latest recommendation of the QuadComm to file criminal charges against Duterte and his fellow officials due to the war on drugs and other related crimes and the looming news of the continuing investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Dacomos said that they could almost feel that justice is dawning upon them.
While the recent developments may have been a time of reckoning for Dacomos and the others, for her, the root cause of drug use and abuse should still be addressed by the government under the Marcos Jr. administration.
Meanwhile, despite Marcos Jr.’s promises of a “bloodless” approach to the war on drugs, over 800 drug-related killings have been documented since he took office according to the Dahas Project of the Third World Studies Center. Rights group Karapatan also noted that his administration has upheld repressive policies from his predecessor Duterte, including the Anti-Terrorism Act and the operations of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which have furthered human rights violations and stifled dissent.
Marcos Jr. has also continued the use of Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF), similar to Duterte’s infamous budget practices which underscored a troubling continuity in governance. All these fueled calls for greater accountability, including the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte and the prosecution of Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity with his bloody war on drugs.
“Those who turn to drugs shouldn’t be killed. They should be rehabilitated and be given the chance to start over a new life,” she stated. She added that the Marcos Jr. administration should go after those who were considered major players in the drug trade, especially the ones who manufactured drugs for others to partake in.
As the House recommendation sent a clear message in shedding light on the grisly killings, Dacomos said that the justice that was once elusive for poor people like her would only be achieved when she sees the perpetrators of the war on drugs behind bars.
“They should pay for their crimes. They should be in jail to feel the pain that the innocent and poor people have experienced when the killings started,” she ended.
Resolved to continue the campaign for justice, she is certain to stand firm on the cause and see it through to the end. Dacomos shared that she draws strength from the hundreds of families fighting with her, as it lessens the fear she feels and makes her want to be braver in standing against powerful figures.
“The fight is not yet over, but we could feel justice is within our grasp. We just need to stay strong and continue to fight for our loved ones,” she ended.
