Militant solons slam killing of teenager in Caloocan anti-drug ops

Rep. Antonio Tinio of Act Teachers partylist (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER / FILE PHOTO

Militant lawmakers slammed the killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos who authorities alleged fired back at the police during an anti-drug operations in Caloocan City.

In a statement Friday, Act Teachers Representatives Antonio Tinio and France Castro called as “deplorable” the killing of a public school student accused of being a runner working for a drug pusher. His parents denied the accusations saying their son was a good child.

Tinio said Kian Loyd became the face of the brutalities committed by the police in the “one-time, big-time” operation against drug and crime suspects.

READ: Cops kill ‘pistol-packing’ Grade 11 kid

“We condemn this most deplorable killing of a child on the incredible pretext that he was a drug suspect and ‘nanlaban’—the modus operandi of elements of the PNP in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs,” Tinio said.

The Philippine National Police, however, said an investigation will be conducted to determine the real circumstances surrounding the incident.

READ: PNP chief vows to probe death of 17-year-old suspect in drug ops

Castro said the killing of the teenager, who according to a CCTV video footage was dragged away by men in civilian uniform before being shot, is another proof that the police bloody anti-drug operation is a “fascist, anti-poor tool in the guise of an anti-drug campaign.”

“Kian Loyd was a child, whom police tagged then as a drug suspect, a student from an OFW family who sold candy in front of his school just to have baon,” Castro said.

“This so-called war on drugs is actually a war against the people, mostly the poor, who are being killed on mere suspicion and say-so of police,” she added.

The militant lawmakers representing teachers in Congress then expressed fear that the Commission on Higher Education’s memorandum requiring mandatory drug test for applications in higher education institutions would result in students getting involved in the police anti-drug operations.

“Children are already being made victims of tokhang even without the drug testing. What more if it is fully implemented in our schools, against our students and teachers?  They say it’s for rehabilitation and prevention but in an anti-drug campaign such as this, no rehabilitation and prevention at all will happen,” they said. JPV

READ: ‘Blood would be on your hands,’ Tinio warns CHEd over drug test memo