Duterte calls killings of woman, son ‘too brutal’

MANILA: Even for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, the sight of an off-duty policeman killing in cold blood a mother and a son she was desperately trying to protect was too brutal.

“I don’t think that you can escape the rigours of justice because it was caught on TV. Even I am dumbfounded… That’s unfair and too brutal,” Duterte said during his televised Cabinet meeting on Monday night (Dec 21).

He said he had seen the five-minute video of Sergeant Jonel Nuezca, 46, shooting at close range Sonya Gregorio, 52, and her son Anthony Gregorio, 25, on Sunday afternoon in Paniqui town, Tarlac province.

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Police reports said the scuffle began after Gregorio set off an air cannon made out of a PVC pipe, creating loud noises, and deteriorated into a heated argument over a land dispute.

Throughout the incident, Gregorio had her arms wrapped tightly around her son to prevent Nuezca from taking him.

Seconds before the shooting, Nuezca’s daughter, a minor, approached Gregorio, slapped the woman’s arm, and told her to let go of her son.

“Just let go of him! Just let go!” the girl shouted. Gregorio told her: “You tell (your father) to let go.”

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When the girl shouted that her father is a policeman, the woman replied “I don’t care!” and taunted her.

Nuezca asked Gregorio: “Do you want me to end you right now?” Then without warning, he pulled out his 9mm pistol and shot her in the head, with dozens watching and at least two people taking videos with their phones. He then shot Gregorio, also in the head.

Just before he fled the scene, he again shot Gregorio in the head as she was sprawled on the ground.

The brutal murders provoked a wave of outrage directed at the government and once again cast a harsh light on perceived abuses by policemen purportedly emboldened by a president said to be mollycoddling officers carrying out his bloody drug war. But Duterte said Nuezca crossed the line.

“You do not follow the law, you salvage (summarily execute), you kill, then I’m sorry. That is not part of our agreement on how we should do our work… Lock him up, and don’t let him out,” he said.