Six days after the killing of a 17-year-old boy, whom the police insist was a drug courier, the outrage continues.
Rightly so. Emerging details on the death of Kian Loyd delos Santos all point to a grim scenario that in turn tells us just how far this administration is willing to go war on drugs. We also get a clearer picture of the kind of people on whose hands the lives of millions lie. We need only look at how the Philippine National Police is trying to contain the outrage by discrediting the boy and his family.
This is of and by itself deplorable. It is evil, as the death of all other hapless “suspects” are evil, from whatever angle it is viewed and whoever is viewing it. We have no words to approximate how the family of the boy and all those who heard his last words could be feeling.
We have no words, too, to describe our revulsion toward those who attempt to lend political color to the tragedy.
It was nothing but coincidence that the killing took place a few days before the 34th death anniversary of former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. His death is believed to have sparked the 1986 People Power Revolution. Those who loudly commemorated his death on Monday, while also extolling the virtues of his wife and the “straight-path” government of his son, conveniently joined the chorus of those crying justice for Kian.
Meanwhile, those on the other side of the political fence are employing the same erroneous, exploitative thinking. Palace officials discredit those who deplore the killing as belonging to the Yellow movement. “They will jump at any issue to demolish the presidency,” said Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo.
We vehemently disagree. Shame on these officials who reduce the people to a simplistic, uncritical, either-or society.
Not everybody who condemns the killing is yellow. Not everybody who wants to see a more humane, civilized and reasonable way of carrying out the war against drugs wants to bring this administration down.
It is plain evil, the manner in which the boy’s life was snuffed out by people who liked to play god. One does not have to see the world through lens of yellow, or any other tint. In getting down to what truly happened on the night of Aug. 16, we just have to go by the evidence and block out all the noise from those who want to milk the tragedy for their own gain.