Political opponents of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte yesterday urged him to end a culture of impunity and quell a surge in drug-related killings, amid widespread anger at police over the death of a teenager.
Allegations of police abuse and a cover-up in last week’s death of Kian Loyd delos Santos has caused rare outrage among a public largely supportive of Duterte’s campaign, which saw more than 90 people killed last week in three nights of intensified police operations.
The grade 11 student was shot dead on Wednesday last week in a rundown area of Manila.
According to a forensic expert who conducted an autopsy, Delos Santos was shot in the back of the head and ears while on the floor, suggesting there was no gunfight, contrary to an official police report.
The victim’s family reject police allegations he was a drug courier.
Duterte has resolutely defended police on the front lines of his 14-month-old war on drugs, but late on Monday he said three officers involved in the teenager’s killing should be punished if found to have broken the law.
Duterte said he had seen the CCTV footage acquired by media which showed plain clothes police dragging a man matching the description of Delos Santos, to a location where he was later found dead.
Opposition Senator Leila de Lima, a detained critic of Duterte, challenged the president to order the police to stop killing.
“I dare you, Mr President, to issue a clear and categorical order to the entire police force to stop the killings now,” de Lima said in a handwritten note from a detention facility, where she is being held on charges of involvement in drugs trade inside jails.
She denies the charges. “Just say it. Do it now, please.”
Another senator, Risa Hontiveros, told the house Duterte had blood on his hands and “revelled in the deaths of drug addicts”, inspiring a culture of impunity and killing. Filipinos tired of crime and drugs and supportive of the president had woken up to what was happening, she said.
“You had no choice but to confront his death because his narrative was compelling,” she said of Delos Santos.
“You felt stirred into action because you could no longer ignore the growing outrage...But Kian was not the first. That there were thousands of deaths before him and that you allowed it to happen.”
Social media users, politicians of all sides and Catholic bishops have called for an impartial investigation into the surge in killings by police, which stopped suddenly when news of the teenager’s death surfaced.
The Senate will hold an inquiry into last week’s bloodshed tomorrow.
Since Duterte took office, more than 3,500 people have been killed in what the Philippine National Police (PNP) says were gunfights with drug suspects who had resisted arrests.
Police say some 2,000 more people were killed in other, drug-related violence that it denies involvement in.
Human rights advocates, however, say the death toll in the war on drugs could be far higher than police have reported.
Senator Paulo Benigno Aquino said that without the CCTV footage, the case of Delos Santos would have gained no attention. He said Duterte should stop the killings and strengthen the judiciary, education, law enforcement and rehabilitation.
“There must be other ways, Mr President. There has to be other solutions to our drug menace,” he said.
Separately, Duterte’s office and the military moved to quell speculation of discontent among the security forces about their involvement in the anti-drugs campaign.
A shadowy group of soldiers and police on Monday issued a statement calling for Duterte’s removal for turning the security forces into his “private army” and ordering them to carry out extrajudicial killings. The group did not identify its members.
The US ambassador to the Philippines called yesterday for “full accountability” following the alleged murder by local police of a 17-year-old boy as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
“My condolences go out to the family and friends of Kian. Hope that the investigations lead to full accountability,” US ambassador Sung Kim said on his Twitter account.
The United States, a longtime ally of the Philippines, had under then-president Barack Obama led international criticism of Duterte’s drug war.
Duterte reacted furiously and used the criticism as one reason for weakening his nation’s alliance with the United States.
Duterte has said relations with the United States are better under Donald Trump, who has praised him for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”. Kim’s predecessor had repeatedly criticised Duterte in public.
Kim, who has been the ambassador since late last year, had sought to repair relations and refrained from publicly criticising the drug war.
While rights groups say Duterte may be orchestrating a crime against humanity, many Filipinos support the charismatic president and his efforts to fight crime.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday added his voice to the condemnation, following similar comments from the education minister.
“Whether or not he was involved in the use or trafficking of illegal drugs, he did not deserve to die in the manner that he did,” Lorenzana said in a statement.
“If the allegations of foul play are proven then the perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
The Philippine Senate will today begin its investigation into Delos Santos’s death following an outcry from different sectors.
Over the weekend the two top leaders of the influential Catholic Church called for an end to the bloodshed as they urged the faithful to “stop consenting to the killings”.
Duterte on Monday said policemen who killed Delos Santos would be jailed if convicted.
However he has also repeatedly vowed to pardon officers if they are found guilty of murder while fighting his drug war.
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