The first year of Duterte’s administration was as bloody as he promised, showing no sign of letting up as his war on drugs peaked at 32 fatalities in just 24 hours last week.
Senior high school student Kian Lloyd delos Santos was closing down their store when he was accosted by four policemen in civilian clothes. Before being handed a gun and told to run according to witnesses, the 17-year-old pleaded with the cops in vain. Closed-circuit television footage showed the policemen dragging him by the head despite their account of delos Santos trying to fight back.
Witness accounts state that police officers instructed Kian to fire the gun as he ran before shooting him down.
In a society that threatens to grow more and more desensitized to daily human rights violations and explicit neglect of due process, Kian, a boy with aspirations of being a policeman, is in the brink of being reduced to a mere statistic along with thousands other victims of the senseless war.
The UP Journalism Club vehemently condemns Duterte’s war on drugs as well as the continued culture of impunity, senseless targeting of the poor and the marginalized, lack of attempts on long-term solutions and violations of human rights carried out by the very institution mandated to protect them.
