When Nanay Belen saw her son inside the room where he was killed, Nonoy was sitting on a chair, his legs crossed, and his mouth open. “Kung pulis silang talaga, hindi nila binaboy yung mga tao ng ganoon.”
Marcelo Daa, Jr.
  • Sex: Male
  • Age: 31
  • Occupation: Garbage Collector
Incident Details
  • Killed in police operation at home
  • Date of Incident: August 21, 2016
  • Location of Incident: Quezon City, Metro Manila
Source(s)

Marcelo Daa was killed outside his house, along with three of his friends. His three young children, wife, and sister were inside the house when he was mercilessly shot while in handcuffs, twice in the chest and once in the head.

He begged the policeman for his life, he needed to live to care for his three children.

Nanay Belen Daa is angry. Shaking with rage, she recounts that one of the women that brought the gunmen to the Daa home was someone her son considered a friend. There was no other way these policemen would know about the house, it was a house isolated from the others, how would they have known where to to go?

The neighbors say this woman who brought death to the Daa home was a girlfriend of one of the police officers responsible for the brutal Payatas murders. Five men were shot point-blank in the massacre, some of them with their hands bound. Four died and one survived.

“Gusto namin na lumabas ang katotohanan, hindi ang kasinungalinan.” She cries out, defending the honor of her son, a respectful and good man.

“Gusto ko magkaroon ng katarungan, hindi dapat ganoon ang gagawin nila”

In the following months, the families of these men were harassed and threatened by the police.

“October 27, bumalik ang mga pulis, bakit pa sila bumalik nakuha na nila ang anak ko ano pa ang hinahanap nila? Naghahanap pa rin sila ng pagkakaperahan nila.”

The murder of her son meant that Nanay Belen was left to care for his three children and widow. Trembling with grief and rage, Belen tells of nights when she could hear the children crying at night to their mother, asking why their father was taken from them. The children are aged 14, 12, and 4.

“Yung Grade 6, tumigil sa pag-aaral dahil sa nangyari sa papa nya. Laging naka-tulala. Laging naka-nganga. Nung pinatay ang papa nya nandyan sila lahat.”

“Nag-iiyak silang mag-iina, maaawa ka talaga. Sabi ko jusko panginoon ko, baka mamaya mabaliw na itong manugang ko, kasi hindi rin nya matanggap na ganoon ang nangyari.

Yung damit (ng asawa nya) hindi pa nya nilabhan, niyayakap nya pag natutulog. Kaya tutulo din ang luha ko kapag naririnig ko sila sa kwarto na umiiyak mag-iina. ‘Papa iniwan mo na kami ng tuluyan’”.

She was angry at her neighbors who had led the killers to her son, people she thought were part of her community, who she gave food to when they were hungry, had returned these favors by bringing death upon her door. “Dapat parusahan din sila! Magbayad sila sa mga ginawa nila!”

“Mga sinungaling sila. Sabihin nila nag-droga yung anak ko, (kung totoo yun) dapat mayaman kami!”

When Nanay Belen saw her son inside the room where he was killed, Nonoy was sitting on a chair, his legs crossed, and his mouth open.

“Kung pulis silang talaga, hindi nila binaboy yung mga tao ng ganoon.”

“Hindi sila pulis, Kriminal sila.”