Robredo echoes calls to stop ‘drug war’ killings

Vice President Leni Robredo/INQUIRER.net File Photo

Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday resounded calls to stop the killings in the government’s war on drugs, citing the tragic fates that befell teenagers, Kian delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz, and Reynaldo de Guzman.

“No words are enough to express the sadness and rage we ought to feel with the seemingly endless killings that are happening, where even minors are put in the crossfire,” she said in a statement.

Robredo, a vocal critic of the anti-drug war and alleged extrajudicial killings of thousands of crime suspects, said she was alarmed by the news on Wednesday of the discovery of De Guzman, Arnaiz’ missing companion, whose body was found in a creek riddled with stab wounds and with his head wrapped in packaging tape.

READ: Kian autopsy points to ‘intentional killing’

“A society where our children can become victims of violence, like the fates that befell Kian, Carl and Reynaldo is unsafe, unjust and unacceptable,” she said in Filipino.

READ: PAO autopsy: Carl Angelo Arnaiz was shot 5 times – 3 in the chest

“A society where our children disappear suddenly only to be found, stabbed and with head wrapped in tape, is a society that one must never accept.”

“We should not let this pass. We are not like this. Filipinos are not like this. The unabated killings have to stop,” Robredo also said.

READ: ‘Kulot’ thrown into river less than 24 hours after he was killed

According to her, those opposed to the killings by state forces of crime suspects should “unite our voices to make sure that this will not continue and the ones responsible will pay.”

“I mourn with the parents and families of the other victims of this kind of violence. I join you in the search for justice for them and the reinvigorated call to stop the killings,” Robredo said. KGA