By Alastair McIndoe Philippines Correspondent

MANILA: In a country dangerously awash with illegal firearms, police in the Philippines are understandably
quick to draw their weapons when confronting suspects.

But the controversial shooting of three suspected car thieves on a Manila highway this month put the spotlight again on concerns over the excessive use of force, and worse, by members of the police force.

Suspicions that the trio were killed under questionable circumstances in the Feb 17 operation surfaced after the ABS-CBN television network, which had a camera crew at the scene, broadcast footage that appears to show a plainclothes officer firing at one of the suspects slumped on the road after being pulled from a vehicle.

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