“License to Kill”

shut up, or I would be next. Right after this, I heard two gunshots and I got
hysterical and they took me outside. The men secured the area. Moments
later, the SOCO investigators arrived. The armed men were still here. The
police claimed they found a handgun and sachet of shabu in the
possession of Paquito. But Paquito never had a gun, and he did not have
any shabu that day. He had been inside the house all day, and had not
gone outside. 223
The police report of the incident claims that a police team was in the area to serve a warrant
of arrest on a different person when they spotted Mejos, “a suspected drug pusher”:
Seeing the approaching lawmen, Mejos suddenly drew his firearm from
his waistline and ran. While fleeing heading towards the second floor of
the house, he pointed his gun to the pursuing team but the police officers
were able to shoot him first hitting him on the body causing his
instantaneous death. 224
Jerome Bayutas, October 18
Barangay 621, Santa Mesa, Manila
Jerome Bayutas, 36, was a rickshaw driver and shabu user. 225 At about 3 p.m. on October
18, five armed men dressed in black with their faces masked arrived at Bayutas’ home. 226
According to a neighbor, the gunmen, later reported to be police, arrested his wife,
Catherine Fernandez, 34, an alleged drug dealer, and brought her and their two children
out of the house. They then returned inside where Bayutas remained. Minutes later,
several gunshots rang out, and soon thereafter the gunmen came outside with Bayutas’
223 Ibid.
224 Navotas Police Department, Blotter Entry 1687, “(For Record) RE: Encounter between PNP personnel and Paquito Mejos
aka Pakerey, a suspected drug pusher,” October 14, 2016 (on file with Human Rights Watch).
225 Human Rights Watch interview with relative of Jerome Bayutas, name withheld, Santa Maria, October 22, 2016.
226 Ibid.
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