Opposition senators remember Kian delos Santos on his 1st death anniversary

FILE: Neighbors of Kian delos Santos pay tribute at Barangay 160, Baesa Libis, Caloocan City on August 15, Wednesday. (Supplied by Akbayan Partylist)

Opposition senators on Thursday, August 16, commemorated the first death anniversary of the 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, whose death sparked public outrage on President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

Delos Santos was killed in an anti-drug operation on August 16, 2017, at Barangay 160, Baesa Libis, Caloocan City. Police earlier claimed that the teenager was a drug courier but the victim’s family denied the allegation.

The 17-year-old boy was among the 81 killed in police operations in Metro Manila within four days, from August 15 to 18, 2017, according to Metro Manila Northern Police District’s (NPD’s) report last year.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who filed Senate Resolution No. 848 which seeks to declare August 16 as “National Day of Remembrance” for delos Santos and other victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under Duterte administration, said the public should not let “Kian and all the EJK victims to be rendered nameless, invisible and forgotten.”

“The act of remembering is an act of defiance against the killings. To forget is to give consent,” Hontiveros stressed.

For detained Senator Leila de Lima, the murder of delos Santos shows the failure of the government’s anti-drug campaign.

“Ang pagpaslang kay Kian ang nagpamulat sa marami sa atin hindi lamang sa karahasan, kundi maging sa mga kapalpakan ng War on Drugs ni Duterte (The killing of Kian opened the eyes of many Filipinos not only to the issue of violence, but also to the failures of Duterte’s war on drugs),” the lady senator said.

“Ang paghahanap ng katarungan sa sinapit ni Kian ang siya ring naging panawagan ng libo-libong naulila ng mga biktima ng madugong polisiya ng rehimeng Duterte, na pawang mga maralita, kabilang na ang mga walang kalaban-laban at inosenteng bata (The search for justice for Kian’s death is also the same call of thousands of grieving families in the bloody policy of the Duterte regime, all of which were poor including defenseless and innocent children),” she added.

De Lima also slammed Duterte, saying that he leads the country “without a clear direction.”

“Puro yabang, puro ngawngaw. Matapos udyukan at kunsintihin ang pagpatay ng 23,000 na Pilipino, saka niya aamining palpak ang madugong War on Drugs (Only full of boasting, full of noise. After urging and tolerating the murder of 23,000 Filipinos and then he would admit that his bloody war on drugs is a failure)?” she stressed.

Saying that justice has yet to be served a year after the delos Santos’s brutal murder, Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan also said, “It is ironic that the President ran and won on the campaign to wipe out drugs in three to six months. Now, he’s talking about giving up and resigning.”

“Poverty, hunger, and social injustice are still the problems that ordinary Filipinos face every day, in the rising prices of goods and the growing insecurity in jobs. The country’s leaders are duty-bound to focus on easing, if not removing, these pains of their citizens,” he added.

Meanwhile, Senator Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV urged Filipinos not to remain silent on the killings and violence happening in the country,

“Ilan pa ba ang kailangang mapaslang bago natin makita na ang lipunang dumadanak ang dugo ng mahihirap ay puno lang ng pagdurusa at hindi makalilikha ng maliwanag na bukas (How many more people should be killed before we realize that a society in which the blood of the poor is shed is only full of suffering and will not create a bright future)?” he asked.

“Matuto tayo mula sa kabataang Pilipino na pursigido sa bawat hamon at hindi nawawalan ng pagmamahal sa kapwa (Let us learn from the younger Filipinos who are determined in every challenge and not losing love to their fellow Filipinos),” he continued.

Along with posters bearing delos Santos’s face and the words “Remember Kian,” family, friends, and neighbors of the slain teen gathered on the site where delos Santos was shot to offer flowers and prayers on the eve of his death anniversary, August 15 for #RememberKian.

The Palace said delos Santos’s death serves as a warning for uniformed men not to abuse their authority.

“The death anniversary is significant because this incident led to the President’s clarification on his official pronouncement on the drug war: He will support the police if the killing is legal. He will prosecute the police if the killing is illegal,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said in a Palace briefing also on Thursday.

“That’s the importance of this year’s commemoration. It’s a warning to all policemen to make sure that they use force when there is absolute necessity and when it is proportional, otherwise, they will be prosecuted,” he added.