Seven persons were killed—including minors and a pregnant woman—in a shooting incident Wednesday night inside a Caloocan City drug den which police described as a “gang war.”

Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said the police were not behind the killings.

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Dela Rosa even told the media to “stop poisoning the minds of public” by insinuating in their reports that members of the police carry out summary killings as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

“Please stop insinuating to the public that this is the work of the police,” Dela Rosa said in a press conference at the Caloocan City police on Thursday.

“Onsehan ito sa drugs. Sana maliwanagan ‘yung publiko at ibang members ng media na nag-entertain ng idea na kagagawan na naman ito ng police at iniinsinuate na EJK (extrajudicial killings) ito. Sana ‘wag nating i-poison ang utak ng tao,” Dela Rosa said.

(This is a drug-related clash. I hope the public and the media who entertain the idea that this was the work of the police and are insinuating that these are extrajudicial killings can see that. Let’s not poison the minds of the public.)

The police chief, who has repeatedly denied that his men were behind the vigilante-style killing of suspected drug personalities, said PNP members were not “drug-crazed” for them to kill innocent people.

Senior Superintendent Robert Fajardo, Northern Police District head, said in the same press conference the suspect behind the killing was a man who was going after another man inside a suspected drug den. He, however, declined to name the victims and suspects while the investigation is ongoing.

When his target was able to escape, the suspect started firing indiscriminately, killing the victims, including the pregnant woman and her unborn baby. Fajardo said the victims were inside the house using “shabu” when the shooting happened.

“Unfortunately, nakatakas sa kabilang bahay ‘yung target niya. Hinabol niya at nakita niya mga tao, na-praning na kaya pinagpuputukan sila,” Fajardo said.

(Unfortunately the person he was targeting escaped to the next house. He chased him and saw the people, he panicked so he opened fire.)

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But earlier media reports quoted the police as saying that the suspects were four unidentified men riding motorcycles. Two of the men then started shooting at the houses in Block 17, Phase 8A in North Caloocan past 9 p.m. Wednesday. The remaining two served as lookout.

Fajardo said they were able to arrest one suspect. The Caloocan police are still pursuing the three others.

Dela Rosa also gave the Caloocan police a deadline of 24 hours, starting 9 a.m. Thursday, to come up with the result of the investigation.

If they would not be able to meet the deadline, Dela Rosa said he would relieve the heads of Caloocan police, including Fajardo, for command responsibility.

“Kung hindi ma-solve ‘yung kaso, i-relieve ko dapat ma-relieve. Sana matapos ang investigation at mahuli ang dapat mahuli. Gawin dapat nila lahat para mabigyan ng hustisya ang mga bata,” he said.

(If the case is not solved, I will relieve those who should be relieved. Hopefully the investigation ends and those who need to be arrested will be caught. All must be done to give justice to the children.) CDG/rga

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