Thousands at boy’s burial seek end to Philippine drug war
Thousands of Filipinos Saturday called for an end to extrajudicial killings as the funeral of a boy killed by police turned into the largest single demonstration yet against President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war.
The killing of 17-year old Kian Delos Santos last week triggered rare protests against Durterte’s controversial but popular campaign to eradicate drugs , with critics saying it highlighted rampant rights abuses by police enforcing the crackdown . Since Duterte’s term began 14 months ago, police have reported killing 3,500 people in anti-drug operations, with thousands more murdered over drug- related crimes and in unexplained circumstances .
Duterte and his drug war are backed by a large majority of Filipinos fed up with the high crime and slow- moving judicial system , according to national polls. But Delos Santos’s murder has dominated the media and sparked public outrage .
Police said the teenager was a drug courier who fired at them while resisting arrest . However CCTV footage emerged of the 2 policemen dragging the unarmed boy away moments before he was killed .After his family held a wake for him at home , around 3,000 people including his classmates friends , nuns , priests and human rights activists marched under the cloudy skies to protest his killing , according to a AFP photographer at the scene .
” Kian is the name and face of the truth “. We must not allow the truth to die with Kian’s murder , said Father Robert Reyes, one of several Catholic priests who celebrated a church mass for the boy on Saturday . Duterte , who had controversially drawn parallels between his drug campaign to Hitler’s extermination of Jews and vowed to protect police from prosecution , has promised to bring the boy’s killer to justice . The slow moving procession snaked through narrow streets as participants , many wearing black ribbons , carried posted that read ” stop killing the poor “, Justice for Kian ” and “Rehabilitation not Persecution “.
The cortege stopped briefly for prayers outside a police station where the three officers who had arrested the boy were deployed . They have since been suspended . Following their claims of Delos Santos being involved in the drug trade , police told a public enquiry on Thursday that they only read about his alleged narcotics activity on ” social media ” after his death . A police autopsy also concluded the boy was fatally shot in the head twice as he lay prone on the ground .
Amnesty International alleged in a report released in Feb that Philippine police shot dead unarmed people, fabricated evidence , paid assassins to murder drug addicts , and stole from those they killed or the victims relatives . It also said police were being paid by their superiors to kill drug suspects , and documented victims as young as 8 years old
