Rights group slams teenager’s ‘cold-blooded’ killing

A human rights group condemned on Friday the “cold-blooded” killing of a 17-year old student in Caloocan City who allegedly fought back against the police.

“The cold-blooded killing of Kian Loyd Delos Santos, 17 years old and a Grade 11 student, by police officers in Barangay (village) 160 in Caloocan City is yet another proof that shows how those in power – with guns and the capacity to distort the truth with planted evidence and a staged crime scene – completely disregard the right to life of the poor, in the course of and fully emboldened by President (Rodrigo) Duterte’s war on drugs,” Karapatan Secretary-General Tinay Palabay said in a statement.

Delos Santos was killed in an anti-illegal drug operation on Tuesday after allegedly firing at policemen conducting “Oplan Galugad” at around 8 p.m. in Libis Baisa, Caloocan City. Authorities recovered from him a gun, four cartridges, and two sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu).

READ: Cops kill ‘pistol-packing’ Grade 11 kid

Zaldy, the victim’s father, has insisted that his son was a good boy, was not involved in drugs and did not own a gun.

Palabay said that the government’s “full scale use of state violence” to resolve the complex drug problem resulted in “the sheer brazenness of state forces to commit murder in broad daylight.”

“Pools of blood of innocents like Delos Santos and that of the poor not accorded with their rights to due process have been spilled, yet there is no end in sight for the actual resolution of the problems spawned by the illegal drug trade,” she added.

Palabay said that Delos Santos and thousands of poor people killed in the deadly war against drugs were victims of the government’s failure to address the longstanding issue of poverty.

“They are not victims of some rogue cops. They are victims of a state-sponsored campaign against the poor,” she said.

She also called for a stop to the killings and said that “all those who committed, ordered, and endorsed” the human rights violations, including President Rodrigo Duterte, should be made accountable.

“It is through upholding the rights of the people, especially social and economic rights, that the root causes of poverty and social problems can be thoroughly addressed,” she said. IDL