CHR to probe cop’s ‘gravely concerning’ shooting of 52-yr-old woman

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Tuesday said it would probe a policeman’s fatal shooting of a 52-year-old woman in Quezon City.

CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said the killing of Lilibeth Valdez by an allegedly intoxicated Police Master Sergeant Hensie Zinampan in a store on Monday night was “gravely concerning.”

“We expect our police to ‘serve and protect,’ and not be at the frontlines of violating rights, let alone arbitrarily curtailing one’s right to life,” she said in a statement.

Zinampan was caught on video committing the crime. The policeman was said to have threatened the Valdez family after engaging in a fistfight with one of the victim’s children in May.

The suspect has been turned over to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District in Camp Karingal.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar also ordered the QCPD to file administrative charges against Zinampan.

“After a string of recent deaths and killings being attributed to police officers, we urge the PNP to translate commitments of internal cleansing into actual reduction of cases of human rights violations on the ground,” the CHR said.

“One death is one too many. We urge the government to address these violations with the larger view that the protection of human rights is primarily a State obligation,” it added.

In December last year, the PNP came under fire after a cop shot dead a mother and son in Tarlac. It was one of several incidents of abuse and killing involving police.

Then PNP chief Debold Sinas said the killing in broad daylight was an isolated incident. -MDM, GMA News