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Ryan Dave Almora was probably kneeling and pleading for his life when a police officer, Dante Lubos, shot him three times - two in the chest and one in the abdomen. Almora did not reach the hospital alive. He died instantly from the gunshot wounds.
The National Police said it was just another case of a suspected drug peddler who resisted arrest and tried to shoot it out undercover cops in an anti-drug sting operation, known as “buy-bust”. But a Baguio City regional trial court (RTC) rejected the police “nanlaban” narrative because the evidence showed a different story.
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The court found Lubos guilty of the crime of homicide, sentencing him to at least 14 years and ordering him to pay the family of Almora more than 1 million pesos in damages, including legal fees. The local court in Baguio City had found that Almora was not in a position to fight back.
The trajectory of the bullets were downward, suggesting the shooter was on an elevated position than Almora. It could be that Almora was kneeling or lying down on a floor when he was shot inside his home in Barangay Insan in Baguio City on July 26, 2016. Besides, post-mortem examination, including a paraffin test, showed Almora had no traces of gunpowder. It was impossible for him to fire a shot.
The incident was barely a month after Rodrigo Duterte assumed office as president. At that time, many police officers were very eager to please Duterte after the National Police launched “Operation Double Barrel”, a brutal and bloody war on drugs policy. More than a thousand street-level drug peddlers, couriers, and users died only in his first month in office. At the end of his six-year single term, it was estimated that over 30,000 people had died.
The National Police admitted only 7,000 died in what it described as legitimate police operations and claimed self-defense for the killings. The Presidential Communications Operations Office reported nearly 20,000 died in the drug war. It turned out the “Nanlaban” narrative was a convenient excuse for the summary execution of suspected drug suspects. Lubos, a colonel now assigned in the Central Luzon Police Regional Office, was the only fifth police officer convicted in relation to the drug war. He could also be the highest ranked police commissioned officer to be punished by a court.
Lubos, who was at that time the head of Baguio City’s police intelligence unit, was with a civilian who posed as a buyer when they went to Almora’s house on the night of July 26. Within minutes, the “buy-bust” operation ended in Almora’s death, which almost all anti-drug police operations end anyway.
Almora’s family disputed the police “Nanlaban” narrative and filed a murder complaint to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) more than a month after. The case dragged in the prosecutor's office, but it did reach the court in 2021, in the last few months of the Duterte administration. Four years later, and after more than nine years, Almora got the justice he deserved.
More than two weeks from now, the chief architect of the genocidal war on drugs will face the International Criminal Court in The Hague, six months after his arrest in Manila. The war on drugs’ chief implementor is still free and hiding behind the August chamber of the Philippine legislature. Justice will only be truly served until all those responsible for war on drugs policy are held accountable. Lubos’ conviction showed wheels of justice in the Philippines move, but it’s excruciating slow.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of this publication.
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