“License to Kill”

Noel Alberto, “Sarah,” September 10
Barangay North Bay Boulevard South (NBBS), Navotas, Metro Manila
Noel Alberto, 23, a father of three, lived with his grandmother and worked as a pedicab
driver. According to a relative interviewed by Human Rights Watch, he was not a drug user
or dealer. 141
On September 9, Alberto attended a party celebrating a christening, held at the house of a
female drug dealer known as “Sarah.” At about 6 p.m., 10 armed men dressed in civilian
clothes and wearing facemasks arrived on five motorcycles. They arrested nine people at the
party, including Alberto and Sarah. The nine detainees were taken away in a white van. 142
The police reported that the bodies of Alberto and Sarah were found dumped next to the
Navotas Public Cemetery at 2:30 a.m. on September 10 by watchmen from the
neighborhood. Both bodies had their heads wrapped in packing tape, a common practice
associated with “vigilante” killings of drug dealers in the Philippines, and both had been
shot. The police report claims that SOCO police investigators found heat-sealed packets of
shabu in the pockets of both deceased. 143
Police records—referring to the incident as “Found Dead Bodies”—suggest that Alberto
and Sarah were not killed in a police encounter, but in a “vigilante” killing. However, the
nature of the incident, in which 10 armed men with face masks took suspects away in a
van, mirrors countless other operations by undercover police. This suggests that the police
and not “vigilantes” were responsible for the killings.
141 Human Rights Watch interview with relative of Noel Alberto, name withheld, NBBS, October 22, 2016.
142 Ibid.
143 Navotas Police Station blotter entry 15077, “NOC: Re Found Dead Bodies,” September 10, 2016 (on file with Human
Rights Watch).
55 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | MARCH 2017