On Tuesday, a man died while in police custody at a Quezon City police station; his family alleged that the death was caused by police brutality.
Genesis “Tisoy” Argoncillo was reportedly buying cellphone credits from a store in Novaliches, Quezon City on Friday when authorities came and arrested him for not wearing a shirt, his family said.
His arrest was supposedly in line with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to crack down on loiterers or tambays as a form of “crime prevention.”
Police said that Tisoy was apprehended for “alarm and scandal” in the neighborhood but his older sister Marilou Argoncillo denied the accusation.
According to Marilou, the owner of the store where Tisoy was nabbed said that police allegedly made him pose with empty beer bottles he did not drink and took a photo of him as “evidence.”
Marilou added that Tisoy confided with her during her visit to the detention facility that he was allegedly attacked by his cellmates.
Marilou told The Philippine Daily Inquirer in Filipino: “He told me that they were stealing his food. That’s why I stayed long enough (during visits) to make sure he could eat. I saw his bruises.”
Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Director Chief Supt. Joselito Esquivel, Jr. said in a statement that Tisoy complained of shortness of breath around 5am on Tuesday.
He was rushed to the Novaliches District Hospital for treatment but was pronounced dead in the facility.
The QCPD said that the doctor who attended to Tisoy “certified that there were no signs of external injuries.”
However, Tisoy’s family alleged that the death was caused by inhumane treatment from police officers.
According to ABS-CBN News, Tisoy’s death certificate shows that he died due to “multiple blunt force trauma in the neck, head, chest, and upper extremities.”
However, Esquivel denied that the death was caused by police brutality.
“These are mere conjectures until an autopsy is performed. Besides, our policemen are under strict orders to follow the PNP (Philippine National Police) protocols calling for rights-based treatment of suspects and detainees,” he said.
Marilou recalled seeing her brother’s lifeless body: “When he was brought to the district hospital, I was asking why this happened to my brother. His whole body was swollen. I held him, he was already stiff, it’s as if they killed him the night before.”
Supt. Carlito Grijaldo, the commander of the police station where Tisoy was detained, alleged that Tisoy was “mentally disturbed” and that his death was self-inflicted.
“He was bumping his head to the wall,” Grijaldo added.
Tisoy’s family was quick to shut down this down, saying he was soft-spoken and that he never had any mental problems.
Marilou told ABS-CBN News: “Now they’re making stories that my brother was crazy. He was not crazy. He willingly went with the police. He just told his aunt, ‘I’ll just go with the police because I have no shirt on.'”
Metro Manila police director Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said on Monday that 5,500 tambays (loiterers) were arrested in the past week.
But it is still unclear what exactly a tambay is. Among those arrested were two call center agents in Makati who were simply on their way back home after work.
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