“Tama na, may exam pa po ako bukas.”
[Stop, I have exams tomorrow.]
Those were the last words of 17-year-old Grade 11 student Kian Loyd Delos Santos before he was gunned down as part of war on illegal drugs operations. Those words, and cries for justice, continue to ring today four years after his death.
Four years have passed since died for allegedly engaging against three policemen in Caloocan City in a shootout. The CCTV footage in the area, however, showed that the Delos Santos was dragged by the police officers in an alley along Tullahan River. He was later found dead, with a 45-caliber pistol, four cartridges, and two sachets of suspected methamphetamine shabu allegedly recovered from his body.
His family denied the student had any links to drugs, that the police were supposedly investigating through his social media accounts. Several investigations confirmed he was defenseless and shot at point-blank.
The death of Delos Santos has become an eye-opener on the state-perpetrated killings through President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs since 2016.
Prosecute Duterte
In an online forum led by Rise Up and National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), the groups backed the International Criminal Court (ICC) move to probe the drug war killings committed under Duterte’s watch.
As of June 2021, the death toll in Duterte’s anti-drug war operations ballooned to 6,165, alongside thousands more summarily executed in vigilante-style killings that remained unaccounted.
Former NUPL chair Neri Colmenares stressed that Duterte must be prosecuted and he could no longer run away from ICC’s investigation on war on drugs killings—be it police-type or vigilante-type of killings—given Philippine justice system’s inability to prosecute him amid his crimes on humanity.
“It’s not really true that he is not afraid of going to prison, he is scared of the ICC. Worse, what happens to his promises to his police and military subordinates that he will protect them, he will pardon them, he will grant them immunity when he himself cannot even ensure that he will not be imprisoned?” Colmenares said.
Should the ICC push to issue an arrest warrant to Duterte, Colmenares said that this will affect Duterte’s credibility and chances of running for the vice presidential post.
Slow, ineffective domestic investigations
The “nanlaban” narrative has been a staple excuse in law enforcement operations in order to justify police arrest or killings along with the planting of evidences against activists, human rights defenders, or even ordinary citizens in the likes of Kian Delos Santos.
“We cannot let this murderous regime to continue its carnage with impunity,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
She said that an ICC investigation is an urgent and significant step to prosecute Duterte for his crimes of humanity.
Palabay added that while the Philippine government proved such domestic investigation in conviction of Kian’s killer, it cannot deny the fact that these mechanisms have been “slow, ineffective, and virtually non-existent”.
“While the government uses the rightful conviction of Kian’s killers to claim that domestic mechanisms of accountability are working and to dissuade investigations by international bodies, nothing could be further from the truth when these mechanisms have proven to be slow, ineffective, and virtually non-existent for thousands of other families who now see the possibility of an ICC investigation as their most crucial shot of justice,” said Palabay.
In 2018, the Caloocation Regional Trial Court Branch 125 handed down a guilty verdict against the three policemen involved in the death of Delos Santos.
Their superiors were immediately relieved weeks after the incident, but were reinstated and even promoted to higher positions in other offices of the Philippine National Police.
“Genuine justice for Kian cannot come without justice for all and putting an end to the killings in the Philippines,” concluded Palabay.
ICC probe
Last June 14, Former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda sought for the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber to probe Duterte for the bloody drug war from the start of his term up to the day before Duterte’s withdrawal from the ICC took effect.
“I have determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed on the territory of the Philippines between 1 July 2016 and 16 March 2019 in the context of the Government of Philippines “war on drugs” campaign,” said Bensouda.
The statement said the ICC “retains jurisdiction over crimes that are alleged to have occurred on the territory of that State during the period when it was a State Party to the Rome Statute. Moreover, these crimes are not subject to any statute of limitation.”
Killings persist
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Spokesperson Atty. Jacqueline Ann de Guia, in her statement on the 4th death anniversary of Delos Santos, lament that the killings persist.
“The UN Human Rights Office has since urged the government to address the “widespread and systematic killing of thousands of alleged drug suspects” and the “persistent impunity and formidable barriers in accessing justice” in the country,” she said.
She noted that investigations of thousands of cases in question are still pending, with only few cases reaching the courts and other fora.
She also said that the CHR is open to work with government in investigating cases of alleged human rights violation, and echoed the call ‘itigil ang patayan’ (stop the killings).
“The work in pursuit of truth and justice is never complete until all perpetrators are held to account,” she concluded.
