Philippine Senator Offers Protection to Witnesses in Police Killing of Boy

Felipe Villamor
2017.08.23
Manila
170823-PH-drugs-620.jpg Protesters hold signs during a Manila rally against the recent killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, Aug. 23, 2017.
AFP

A Philippine senator on Wednesday said she had taken “protective custody” of three witnesses – two of them minors – in the death of a 17-year-old during President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

The key witnesses could provide testimony on Kian Loyd delos Santos’ killing last week, when police launched “one time, big time” anti-drug operations that left almost 100 people dead in the bloodiest five days yet of Duterte’s campaign to rid the country of suspected drug pushers and addicts.

Police claimed delos Santos was shot and killed when he engaged policemen in a shootout, but footage from a closed-circuit television camera appeared to belie their statements. The footage showed two men – believed to be police officers in civilian clothes – dragging the boy away before his body was found.

The boy’s death placed Philippine police under pressure to explain the killings. Church leaders decried the boy’s death and Duterte’s allies in the Senate agreed to start an inquiry.

Earlier, Duterte praised police for gunning down 15 people – including a local mayor on the president’s list of 150 officials allegedly engaged in drugs – in the southern Philippines.

Anger over the boy’s death spilled onto the streets on Monday, with many joining protests despite heavy rain to call for accountability.

On the same day, Duterte told reporters he had seen the footage.

“I agree that there should be an investigation. If there is liability, they will go to jail,” Duterte said. “I instructed police to put the officers in custody.”

But Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who said the three witnesses were under protection of her security team, attacked Duterte’s promise of a full and impartial investigation into the case, saying it was too little, too late.

She also said the president was complicit in the boy’s death because he repeatedly urged those in the uniformed services to kill suspects rather than be shot themselves.

“Currently, my office, with the help of several concerned groups and church leaders, are providing protection and sanctuary to three key witnesses to the killing of Kian,” she said.

“Two of them are minors ages 13 and 16, and one is an adult. They are in our care since Saturday,” she said.

The children feared for their lives and exhibited signs of trauma, she said, adding they are represented by a lawyer and gave their sworn statements to be included in the filing of cases against the boy’s suspected killers.

She plans to present the same document to the Senate on Thursday when it convenes a hearing into the incident.

“The most important thing now is to protect and secure the witnesses and give justice to the extra-judicial killing of Kian,” the senator said.

Duterte, who unleashed a deadly crackdown against drug users and dealers as soon as he took office on June 30, 2016, said he would not interfere in the investigation.

So far, more than 8,000 deaths have been logged, but police said only about 3,500 have died as a result of gun battles during police raids. The rest were considered “deaths under investigation” or killings blamed on vigilantes.

A resolution signed by Hontiveros and five other opposition senators on Tuesday said Duterte’s war “unjustly targets the poor and the helpless while failing to address the root causes of the drug menace in the country.”

Sen. Antonio Trillanes, one of Duterte’s staunchest critics, said the probe should not be aimed solely at purging the police ranks of abusive cops, but also at providing some accountability.

“Relieving certain personnel without making them suffer the consequences of their action will not make a dent,” Trillanes said.

U.S. ambassador calls for accountability

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, on Tuesday echoed calls for full accountability after the boy’s death.

“My condolences go out to the family and friends of Kian. Hope that the investigations lead to full accountability,” Kim said on his Twitter account.

Facing some of the stiffest criticism to date of his war on drugs, Duterte on Wednesday clarified that he did not order security personnel to kill suspects already on their knees and begging for their lives, according to the daily Philippine Star.

The president said police and soldiers should shoot suspects only if the criminals violently resisted and threatened their lives, the report said.

“What I reminded again the military and the police is that it should be in the performance of your duty. You are not allowed to kill a person who is kneeling down begging for his life. That is murder,” the newspaper quoted Duterte as saying during the inauguration of a solar cell factory in Batangas, south of Manila.

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