Myca Ulpina, the 3-year-old girl who was killed in a buy-bust operation late last month, was shot by two policemen, one of whom also died at the scene of the crime, officials from the Philippine National Police said in a statement yesterday.
Calabarzon Regional Police Director Brigadier-General Edward Carranza made the conclusion based on statements from police officers who were also part of the operation that took place in Myca’s home in Rodriguez, Rizal.
He also referred to a ballistics report and a re-enactment of what occurred to conclude that Senior Master Sergeant Cabigao, the cop who posed as a drug buyer and died during the operation, shot Myca’s head. Police Corporal Mark Jherson Olaño, another cop who was part of the operation, also allegedly hit the girl’s hands and feet after going inside the house to shoot the victim’s father, drug suspect Renato Dolofrina who also died in the encounter.
Carranza said the PNP will file a criminal complaint against Olaño, reported Manila Bulletin.
Myca died after she was caught in a crossfire between the police, her father, and his unidentified associate. Rodriguez cops initially alleged that she was shot because her father used her as a “human shield” during the gunfight. However, Myka’s mother said there was no truth to this claim and that her child died due to a stray bullet.
The mother said that she was in the house when the cops arrived but that she went upstairs with their other kids, while Myka refused to leave her father.
Dolofrina and his accomplice were both killed during the shootout. According to the police, the gunfight allegedly started when Dolofrina and his companion recognized that Cabigao was a police officer and shot him.
Carranza also said yesterday that the PNP will file administrative charges for grave irregularity in the performance of duty against Chief Master Sergeant Gerry Cordero, the officer who led the operation that killed the child, reported SunStar Manila.
The PNP will also file administrative charges against Lieutenant Colonel Resty Damaso, then Rodriguez chief of police, for neglecting his duties in the anti-drug operation.
Chief Master Sergeant Vladimir Dizon, Rodriguez chief investigator, will also get administrative charges for assigning four rookie investigators to the case without supervision from a more senior police investigator.
Myca’s death led the non-profit organization Human Rights Watch to urge the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to adopt a resolution that calls for an investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. The resolution was approved a few days later.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. called the UNHRC’s approval a “travesty.” Meanwhile, Duterte is reportedly mulling the possibility of cutting ties with Iceland, which filed the resolution.
According to the PNP, 6,600 drug suspects have been killed in anti-drug operations from June 2016 to May 2019. However, the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights said in December that the number could be as high as 27,000.
