Hontiveros seeks Senate inquiry into spate of killings involving youth in PH

JUSTICE FOR JEMBOY: Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros urges the Philippine National Police (PNP) to ensure that justice will be served to 17-year-old Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar who was killed by six police officers in Navotas City. OS Hontiveros photos / Senate PRIB file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday filed a resolution seeking a Senate investigation, in aid of legislation, into the spate of killings among youths in the Philippines.

Hontiveros said the killing of 15-year-old John Frances Ompad prompted the filing of proposed Senate Resolution No. (SRN) 776.

John Frances was allegedly fatally shot by Police Cpl. Arnulfo Sabillo, 37, whose actual target was the victim’s 19-year-old brother named John Ace Ompad. The incident took place in Barangay San Isidro, Rodriguez, Rizal on August 20.

To note, John Frances was only one of the two teens that had been killed in August 2023 during a police operation intended for different targets. The other teenager was 17-year-old Jemboy Baltazar who was shot and killed by Navotas police after they mistook him for a murder suspect.

“The killing of John Frances was again claimed to be accidental — the second accidental death of a youth at the hands of police in a matter of weeks, and echoing Jemboy’s murder, Cpl. Sabillo had likewise been found guilty of administrative offenses – having been suspended twice and arrested for alarm and scandal,” said Hontiveros in her resolution.

“The violent killings of society’s most vulnerable – our children and youth – many perpetrated by officers of the Philippine National Police, has resulted in a creeping culture of fear and distrust of law enforcement in our communities,” Hontiveros added.

With this, she urged the Senate committees on women, children, family relations and gender equality as well as the chamber’s panel on public order and dangerous drugs to conduct a joint probe into the rising number of killings among youth, and the distrust it triggers to uniformed personnel involved.

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