Palace cries foul over Reuters report on QCPD’s ‘Davao Boys’

FILE: In a text message to reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. assailed the report as “foul” pointing out that Reuters did not wait for Malacañang’s side before publishing the article. (PCOO PHOTO)

MANILA — Malacañang on Wednesday cried foul over a Reuters special report on the anti-drug unit of a Quezon City police station that has been alleged to be the most deadly in terms of killing drug personalities in Metro Manila.

The report depicts how a small group of police officers from President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown Davao arrived in the Philippine capital and, calling themselves “Davao Boys,” formed the core of a lethal anti-drug unit that has allegedly racked up an impressive number of body count in the administration’s war against illegal drugs.

In a text message to reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. assailed the report as “foul” pointing out that Reuters did not wait for Malacañang’s side before publishing the article.

“That was a foul report. (The) reporter demanded out version within the hour at 11 a.m. yesterday (Tuesday). We said we couldn’t (because) of our briefing,” he said.

Roque holds regular Palace briefings on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m.

“So that story did not get our side. No comment to one-sided story,” Roque said.

According to the Reuters report, Quezon City Police District (QCPD Station 6 was the most deadly among Quezon City’s 12 police stations.

Based on the QCPD crime reports reviewed and analyzed by Reuters, its officers were alleged to have killed 108 people in anti-drug operations from July 2016 through June 2017, the campaign’s first year, accounting for 39 percent of the city’s body count.

“Almost all of these killings were carried out by Station 6’s anti-drug unit, the reports show,” the report said.

“The officers who formed the core of that unit hailed from or near Davao, the southern hometown of President Duterte. They called themselves the ‘Davao Boys’ – and spoke in the region’s language, Visayan,” it added.

Reuters claimed that Malacañang and the Philippine National Police (PNP) had not replied to questions from Reuters at the time of publication.

The article was published at the Reuters website on December 19, 2017 at 1 p.m.