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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Rights groups stage indignation rally against viral Tarlac shooting incident

Rights groups stage indignation rally against viral Tarlac shooting incident

Published Dec 22, 2020 03:39 pm

Several militant groups on Monday night staged an indignation rally to condemn the controversial shooting incident involving a police officer and an unarmed mother and her son in Paniqui, Tarlac on Sunday.

(Photo courtesy of BAYAN Secretary General Renato Reyes)

Members of the said groups lit candles at the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City on Monday night as they mourned for Sonya Gregorio, 52, and her son Frank Anthony Gregorio, 25 who were killed by Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca after a heated argument.

The rights groups also held up banners and placards calling for an end to extrajudicial killings.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, a human rights group, dismissed the authorities' claims that the killing was an "isolated incident."

"That we have come to this—the cold-blooded and merciless murder of mother Sonya Gregorio and son Frank Anthony Gregorio in full view of many, recorded on video, in broad daylight by police officer Jonel Nuezca—is a dangerous and chilling effect of impunity that reigns in the Philippines. This is no isolated incident, especially when governance and culture is being driven by President Rodrigo Duterte’s rabid kill-kill-kill policy," her statement read.

"This policy is out there in the President’s statements ordering, inciting, and encouraging human rights violations, in the repeated acts of State forces in killing unarmed civilians (whoever they may be); in the guaranteed immunity for human rights violators and war criminals; in the distortion and disdain for standards and principles on human rights and people’s rights; in the on-cue barrage of hallelujahs from sycophants, influencers, and troll armies on each and every crime of this administration; in the sexist, brazenly misogynistic and dehumanizing language that is normalized; in the militarist solutions to social problems; and in the quelling of all forms of political dissent," she added.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and Philippine National Police chief Debold Sinas are among those who called the killing by the police officer an "isolated incident." 

A video of the incident showed Nuezca and his daughter in a shouting match with the two Gregorios. The police officer's daughter yelled "My father is a police man!" to which Sonya yelled back "I don't care!"

After this, Nuezca cursed the woman and said "Gusto mo tapusin kita (Do you want me to end you)?" before pulling out his gun and shooting the mother and son, who both died on the spot.

Investigation showed that the argument stemmed from Frank Anthony setting off an air cannon made of a PVC pipe. The neighbors also reportedly had a long-standing land dispute.

Nuezca, 46, assigned at the Crime Laboratory based in Parañaque City, surrendered to authorities an hour after the incident.

Several politicians and countless Filipinos online have condemned the incident and called for justice for the slain Gregorios.

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