Slain pedicab driver in Pasay not a pusher, wife says

The wife and neighbors of slain pedicab driver Eric Sison are crying for justice amid the Pasay City Police's claim that he was killed after he engaged policemen in a shootout.

A report by GMA News' Chino Gaston on "24 Oras" on Tuesday said Sison's wife and neighbors do not believe the police's claims that he was a drug pusher.

"Sumigaw na siyam 'Tama na po, sir. Susuko na po ako.' Sabay pinagbabaril nila. Sabay nagsalita 'yung pulis na, 'Tara na, tama na, patay na 'yan'," one neighbor said.

A few neighbors in Barangay 34 posted placards outside their houses describing the police operation as an overkill.

Rachel Bermoy, Sison's widow, said her husband was not even a drug user. The two have a one-year-old child.

"Paano na yan? Pinatay nila siya. Paano na anak namin?" Bermoy said.

The report said Sison's neighbors saw him being chased by the police on foot.

Despite being shot on the foot first, Sison still managed to climb to a roof and enter a neighbor's house where he hid behind a matress.

The incident was caught on a cellphone video.

Meanwhile, the three patrol officers involved in the shooting said Sison drew a gun when he and a companion where spotted by patroling policemen on Titanic Street, an area infamous for illegal drug trafficking.

Chief Insp. Rolando Baula said they would look into the incident to determine if the policemen committed overkill. "We will conduct an investigation on the incident and the video na yan," he said in the report.

Baula clarified the police operation was a routine anti-criminality patrol and not an anti-illegal drug operation.

Over 700 drug suspects have been killed in various police operations since the start of the Duterte administration on June 30. —Joseph Tristan Roxas/KBK, GMA News