“License to Kill”

two friends’ hands behind their backs, put them into a marked white police van, and drove
them away. 137
The relatives rushed to the Navotas police station, where about 30 detained persons from
the raid were being processed, but could not locate the three men. At about 8 p.m., a
police officer told the family to wait while the suspects were being tested for drugs. 138
At 4 a.m., police officers presented the relatives with photos of the bodies of the three
men, who police claim they found in two different areas in the neighborhood. The police
report of the incident said that Lafuente and Benji had died from gunshot wounds under
the C-3 Bridge in the NBBS neighborhood where they were arrested, their hands still tied
with the plastic straps put on when they had been detained. The police claim to have
found shabu in both of their pockets. 139 The 15,000 pesos Lafuente had in his pocket for
his father’s release was missing. According to his relatives, Renato Forio Jr. was similarly
found executed, his hands still tied, in a separate part of the neighborhood.
The police report says “unknown” gunmen were responsible for the deaths and does not
address the evidence that the three men were taken in police custody hours before their
bodies were found, and that their bodies were found still handcuffed. Furthermore, a
witness later told Lafuente’s relatives that he had witnessed plainclothes men with masks
beating Lafuente under the bridge the evening of his death. 140
137 Ibid.
138 Ibid.
139 Navotas City Police Station, excerpt from police blotter: Found Dead Body, August 24, 2016 (on file with Human Rights
Watch).
140 Human Rights Watch interview with relative of Angelo Lafuente, name withheld, October 24, 2016.
LICENSE TO KILL 54