Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
(File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Student leaders on Tuesday have asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to inhibit from handling the murder and torture complaint filed against the police officers involved in the death of 17-year old Kian Delos Santos.
In a letter addressed to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, they said “the honorable Secretary of the Department of Justice has already prejudged this case as shown by his public pronouncements.”
The letter cited Aguirre’s various public statements including when he said that Kian’s case was “blown out of proportion” by the media.
READ: Aguirre: Minors killed by addicts or by cops — what’s the difference?
The same letter also noted Aguirre’s statement that no one is condemning drug-related killings but only deaths caused by police officers.
Signatory to the letter include Karla Yu, convenor of the Millenials Against Dictators; Amber Quiban, national secretary general of the University of the Philippines Bukluran System; Jeza Antonette Rodriguez, OIC national secretary general, Student Council Alliance of the Philippines and Moira Macainag, Director for Social and HuMAN Sciences of the PLM UNESCO Club.
They insisted that it should be the Ombudsman who should conduct the investigation being the “guardian against abuses of public officers, is the best forum to conduct preliminary investigation for this case given the impartiality and neutrality of this Constitutionally-mandated body.”
“As having prejudged the Kian Delos Santos murder and torture case by showing support to police operations conducted under the campaign against illegal drugs, it is respectfully submitted that the Department of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre should inhibit from conducting the preliminary investigation for the aforementioned case and the venue thereof be transferred to the Ombudsman,” the letter stated. IDL