LAGIM: A Filipino True Crime · LAGIM Podcast

The Killing of Jemboy Baltazar

·51 min·3 clips

Dr. Raquel Fortun says Jemboy died from a gunshot to the head, with drowning as a contributory cause.

The killing is treated as part of a pattern. Before the episode returns to Jemboy Baltazar, the host stops for Gaza and lets the heaviness sit: another young person killed by the Philippine National Police. She does not narrate it like a clean case file. She places it beside Duterte's drug war, police brutality, corruption, and the numbness that can set in after years of poor victims being treated as throwaways. The anger is there, but held tight. Her argument is blunt: the war on drugs was never only about drugs, since powerful people were not the ones being shot or dragged through cases. Then the episode narrows back to Jemboy. Criticism of police operations is used to show a problem in institutional orientation, not a one-off mistake. Dr. Fortoon's autopsy is the hinge. Her August 11 findings say Jemboy died from cranio-cerebral injuries caused by a perforating gunshot wound to the head, with drowning contributing to the death. From there, the PNP version starts to wobble. The host says the findings do not fit the police account, especially because Dr. Fortoon ruled the killing a homicide. She also stresses that survival was possible. Had Jemboy not fallen into the water and been left there, the brain injuries may not have killed him immediately. The wound in his hand lands hard too. Dr. Fortoon found a gunshot wound there, which could point to an attempt to defend himself and tracks with what Jemboy's sister had said. Jessa's memory of the neck wound is handled carefully: a bullet entered the neck and exited through the nose. Even procedure turns ugly. When PNP members from Navotas visited Dr. Fortoon to demand the autopsy report, the host treats the visit as improper. The episode closes with Jemboy's mother, whose grief gets the last word.

As heard by us

A grave listen about police violence, grief, and official contradiction.

This episode follows Jemboy Baltazar's killing and keeps returning to the harder questions around police violence, public indifference, and how the war on drugs keeps falling on poor young people.

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Why you'd press play

For a close look at police violence, family testimony, and autopsy findings, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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