Student leaders to Aguirre: Hands off Kian slay probe

Youth leaders call for SOJ Aguirre to inhibit from Kian's case @inquirerdotnet https://t.co/PkHT3vAcYX

— tetch torres-tupas (@T2TupasINQ) August 28, 2017

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II should stop yapping about the case of 17-year old Kian Loyd Delos Santos, a group of student leaders on Monday said as they called for his inhibition from the case filed against the police officers tagged in the teenager’s death.

Delos Santos was killed during a one-time, big time raid conducted in Caloocan City. Autopsy showed he was shot three times execution style—at the back and twice to the head, behind his left ear and inside his ear.

The Public Attorneys’ Office (PAO) already filed a complaint violations of the Revised Penal Code for murder and Republic Act  9745 or the Anti-Torture Law specifically for torture leading to death and involving children against Caloocan City Station 7 Police Chief Inspector Amor Cerillo, Police Officer 3 Arnel Oares and Police Officers 1 Jeremiah Pereda and Jerwin Cruz and several John Does.

The students leaders said Aguirre’s pronouncements are malicious because he already declared Kian guilty.

“It should always be presumed innocent unless proven otherwise,” the student leaders said at a press conference Monday.

“His various statements about the case has shown that he’s already made up his mind about the case. He called Kian’s death overblown and the witnesses ‘brainwashed.’ All of this, apparently in efforts to continue the war on drugs, a known failure as a policy measure,” the students said.

Although the complaint filed by PAO is technically not with Aguirre’s office but at the level of the National Prosecution Service (NPS), the student leaders said the DOJ chief should do a “symbolic inhibition” by giving public pronouncements that he will not meddle with the investigation and stop issuing statements against Kian.

“This not only sets a bad example to aspiring lawyers but it actually erodes the public’s trust in our justice system. It is to the satisfaction of justice that Aguirre would not intervene in the investigations and the proceedings, and just let justice run its due course,” Kathleen Benavidez of the UP Law School said.

“In the spirit of impartiality and the pursuit of justice, We call on Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, the ‘fake news king of Padre Faura’ to inhibit from investigating the killing of 11th grader Kian Delos Santos,” Millennials Against Dictators co-convenor Karla Yu added. JE