UP expresses worry over safety of youth amid drug war

Oblation statue is silhouetted at University of the Philippines, Quezon City. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The University of the Philippines expressed concern that the safety of the country’s youth may now be at risk, following the death of Kian Loyd delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz, who were both killed by police in questionable circumstances.

In a statement posted on its website on Wednesday, the office of UP Diliman chancellor Michael Tan said that the deaths of Delos Santos and Arnaiz, whose “life circumstances [were] so similar,” raise “questions about the safety and welfare of young Filipinos in the current war on drugs” of the Duterte administration.

The two teenagers were both sons of overseas Filipino workers. Both of their families had denied that they were capable of doing the crime being attributed to them by authorities.

On Aug 16, Delos Santos, tagged by police as a drug runner, was killed in an antidrug operation in Caloocan City. Security footage showed that the 17-year-old was dragged by police into an alley where he was later found dead with two gunshot wounds in the head.

A day later, Arnaiz was killed in an alleged shootout after he supposedly robbed a taxi driver in the same city. Police claimed that he had shabu and marijuana in his possession. Arnaiz’s parents would only learn about the death of their son on Aug. 28.

Autopsies conducted by the Public Attorney’s Office on the two teenagers showed that their injuries pointed to their “intentional killing.”

Tan’s office said that UP Diliman joins the Arnaizes in mourning the passing and calling for justice for the 19-year-old former UP student. In 2014, Arnaiz, a consistent honor student, took up interior design at UP Diliman.

While depression forced Arnaiz to quit school, Tan said that he was “intent [on] returning to UP” – a chance authorities took from him.