The 32-year-old Spanish surfer who died Wednesday at the hands of the police on the Philippine island of Siargao , according to police sources during a drug operation , was not a professional in that sport nor was he linked to the Spanish Federation.
The deceased is Diego Bello Lafuente , who resided temporarily in Siargao , an island located 800 kilometers southeast of Manila and very popular with surfers, where he had several businesses related to tourism.
After hearing about the event, from the Federation they were interested in the identity of the surfer, in whose social networks he appears as a practitioner of the SUP (paddle surf) modality. "We have no knowledge that it is close to the federative world," they said. The young man had also militated in the quarry of Deportivo de La Coruña during 2001 and 2003, and had been an image of the club's subscriber campaign in 2017.
Philippine police say Bello was a "high-value drug dealer " who carried 10 grams of cocaine and 30,000 Philippine pesos in marked bills ($ 600) and valued the action as a " successful operation in the fight against drugs." .
After being shot, Bello was taken to the hospital, where his death was confirmed , according to the spokesman for the Surigao del Norte Regional Police, Reynel Serrano. "It was an operation in self-defense," said Serrano, who said Bello was carrying a 45-caliber pistol and fired at the agents first.
Human rights organizations have denounced that the Philippine police falsify evidence to justify extrajudicial executions in the bloody war on drugs that began three years ago under the mandate of President Rodrigo Duterte .
The United Nations and human rights defenders have criticized the climate of impunity of the anti-drug campaign in which some 30,000 people have died, mostly in extrajudicial executions at the hands of the police.
Police have admitted to killing about 6,700 suspects in raids, although they claim that they all resisted arrest.
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