Sen. Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE / LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — The commemoration of “Niños Inocentes” or the Feast of Holy Innocents should prompt Filipinos to recall the fate of children who died in the government’s war on illegal drugs, opposition Senator Leila de Lima said Friday.
In a dispatch from the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, De Lima, chair of the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development, said the children and the families of those killed should not pay the price for the administration’s “flawed” drug war.
“Let us remember all the children who were killed by Duterte’s bloody War on Drugs. Let us pray for justice for the victims and for these senseless killings to stop. Let us fight for them,” she said.
“Sa ating sama-samang panawagan at paninindigan, makakamit natin ang isang lipunan kung saan malayang nakapaglalaro ang mga bata, payapang nakapag-aaral, at nangangarap ng magandang kinabukasan para sa kanilang pamilya,” she added.
Every December 28, the Catholic Church commemorates “Niños Inocentes” in various parts of the world as part of the Christmas season.
It recalls the children killed on the order of King Herod of Judea, fearful of being overthrown by the prophesized Messiah, Jesus who was born in Bethlehem.
Of the thousands of deaths in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, children who died have been regarded by the government as “collateral damage,” according to De Lima.
“[S]a ilalim ng rehimeng Duterte at ng pekeng War on Drugs, marami nang musmos ang napatay. May pumanaw habang nasa sinapupunan pa lamang ng inang napaslang,” she recalled.
“May apat na taong gulang na nabaril habang tinutugis ng mga pulis ang ama. May estudyanteng nagmakaawa para sa kanyang buhay, tinamnan ng ebidensya, at walang awang binaril. May libo-libong batang mistulang kinitil na rin ang kinabukasan nang pinaslang ang kanilang mga magulang,” she continued.
Last year, De Lima filed Senate Resolution (SR) No. 499 urging the appropriate Senate committee to investigate the successive reports of killings of children either by police or vigilantes.
She said several human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, also renewed their call for an independent body to investigate the unlawful killings in the country last year, to no avail. /cbb