The Philippine National Police (PNP) was meant to serve and protect the Filipino people, but the recent Quad Committee Hearings have exposed a force that sowed fear and suffering under the leadership of Bato Dela Rosa during the Duterte administration.
At the 9th Quad Committee Hearings, a grim tale of betrayal and abuse of power emerged as former Los Baños Councilor Norvin L. Tamisin recounted his harrowing ordeal. Wrongfully implicated in the assassination of former Los Baños Mayor Caesar Perez, Tamisin’s life was turned upside down.
In 2019, before the local elections, Mayor Perez’s name appeared on the infamous narcolist, then seen as a death sentence. Though Perez vehemently denied any involvement with the drug trade, he met a brutal end on December 3, 2020. He was shot dead inside the very town hall where he had served. With no feud between them, Tamisin suddenly found himself accused of the murder, all based on a fabricated witness and doctored CCTV footage that placed him at the scene. The weight of the false accusations forced Tamisin into hiding, severing him from his family in a desperate attempt to protect them.
Fearing his execution by local police eager to close the case, Tamisin lived as a fugitive. Despite his protests of innocence, he was eventually captured in Baguio and condemned to spend seven nightmarish months in prison. When the CCTV footage was finally scrutinized, it unmasked the truth: Tamisin was nowhere near the town hall during the assassination. In a chilling twist, it exposed the PNP, led by then Major Albotra, as complicit in the cover-up, intentionally concealing the real footage to protect the actual killer—one of their own.
Duterte’s war on drugs left thousands dead and countless innocent lives destroyed. Fueled by greed and a reward system, officers were incentivized to kill, with payouts depending on how influential the victim was. Failure to kill meant only a refund of expenses.
The very institution sworn to protect the Filipino people instead became the engine of their torment, trading justice for cash while leaving a nation in ruins, its people broken, betrayed, and left to suffer under the weight of their corruption.
