Policemen involved in the killing of a 17-year-old teenager in Navotas City should be charged with murder, a group of human rights lawyers said on Monday, Aug. 14.

“Enough facts exist to support an indictment for murder, not mere reckless imprudence resulting in homicide,” members of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) in the National Capital Region Chapter said.

NUPL’s statement was issued on the Aug. 2 death of Jerhode “Jemboy” Baltazar, who was believed killed by members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Navotas City after they thought the teenager was the robbery suspect they were looking for.

It said: “The police officers were armed, specially outfitted, and sought to allegedly arrest a crime suspect. The death of ‘Jemboy’ was a direct consequence of the operation.”

It pointed out that “the mistake in identity does not downgrade the crime to reckless imprudence, similar to cases of fatal road accidents.”

Thus, it said the death of Baltazar should be “prosecuted as not as an accident, but as an intentional criminal felony.”

“Jemboy and his companion were unarmed and defenseless,” it also said.

“The police operatives who shot ‘Jemboy’ and his companion, from all indications so far made known to the public, acted with intent to kill,” it pointed out.

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. had already called on the PNP leadership to revisit their operational procedures because of the incident.

The NUPL said the 2023 PNP Police Operational Procedure “already specified the standards of necessary and reasonable force in accordance with their own ‘force continuum’ approach.”

“It requires the use of non or less lethal force in situations where the ‘offender’ or the ‘suspect’ of the operation does not pose immediate danger,” it explained.

Earlier, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) had decided to conduct its own probe on the death of “Jemboy.”

It said its investigation hopes to ensure accountability for the alleged arbitrary deprivation of life of a boy committed by state agents.

“As our own independent investigation pursues the truth behind the incident, CHR stresses the importance of upholding the right to life,” the CHR said.

“Lapses leading to the curtailment of a person's life is a grave and irreversible violation of a human right,” it stressed.