THOUSANDS of Filipinos Saturday called for an end to extrajudicial killings as the funeral of a boy killed by police turned into the largest single demonstration yet against President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war.
The killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos last week triggered rare protests against Duterte’s controversial but popular campaign to eradicate drugs, with critics saying it highlighted rampant rights abuses by police enforcing the crackdown.
Delos Santos’ slay had sparked public outrage and raised questions on the conduct of police operations while the boy, who dreamed of becoming a policeman, was laid to rest while his family cried out for justice.
Delos Santos was buried on Saturday afternoon at the La Loma Cemetery in a ceremony attended by hundreds and watched by thousands more on social media.
During the rites, hundreds of onlookers scrambled for space to get a closer look, blocking those who carried the teen’s casket into his crypt, his final resting place among multi-level niches at the cemetery.
Earlier, the teen’s funeral car—a truck bedecked with flowers where his casket was placed—made a sentimental stop at Caloocan City’s Police Community Precinct 7, the station where the cops linked to his death were assigned.
Wearing “Justice for Kian” T-shirts, the slain teen’s family attended his funeral Mass Saturday morning at the Sta. Quiteria Church.
Saldy delos Santos, father of the slain teen, gave an emotive message and ode to his son at the Mass rites.
Since Duterte’s term began 14 months ago, police have reported killing 3,500 people in anti-drug operations, with thousands more murdered over drug-related crimes and in unexplained circumstances.
Duterte and his drug war are backed by a large majority of Filipinos fed up with high crime and a slow-moving judicial system, according to national polls.
But Delos Santos’ murder has dominated the media and sparked public outrage.
Police said, CCTV footage emerged of two policemen dragging the unarmed boy away moments before he was killed.
After his family held a wake for him at home, around 3,000 people including his classmates, neighbors, nuns, priests and human rights activists marched under cloudy skies to protest his killing, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
“Kian is the name and face of the truth. We must not allow the truth to die with Kian’s murder,” said Father Robert Reyes, one of several Catholic priests who celebrated a church Mass for the boy on Saturday.
Duterte, who had controversially drawn parallels between his drug campaign to Hitler’s extermination of Jews and vowed to protect police from prosecution, has promised to bring the boy’s killers to justice.
The slow-moving procession snaked through narrow streets as participants, many wearing black ribbons, carried posters that read “Stop Killing the Poor,” “Justice for Kian,” and “Rehabilitation not Persecution.”
Following their claims of Delos Santos being involved in the drugs trade, police told a public investigation on Thursday that they only read about his alleged narcotics activity on “social media” after his death.
A police autopsy also concluded the boy was fatally shot in the head twice as he lay prone on the ground.
Amnesty International alleged in a report released in February that Philippine police shot dead defenseless people, fabricated evidence, paid assassins to murder drug addicts, and stole from those they killed or the victims’ relatives.
As he bade goodbye to his slain son, father Saldy could not help but question why it had to be his child.
The father was in tears as he addressed hundreds of condoling friends and loved ones at the funeral Mass for the boy at the Sta. Quiteria Church Saturday morning.
Delos Santos, who was unable to sleep on the final night of his son’s wake, admitted he was still at a loss for words.
Amnesty International also said police were being paid by their superiors to kill drug suspects, and documented victims as young as eight years old.