PEOPLE are not stupid. Police who are trying to wiggle their way out of the indefensible killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos ought to know that.
When Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa trotted out an alleged drug pusher to say that Kian, a Grade 11 student, was a courier, only the most gullible of people gave the “revelation” much credence. What threats, we wondered, were made against this “pusher” to go public and smear the memory of Kian, who by all accounts was worried about a test in school the next day when policemen started beating him—just before they dragged him to a lonely alley, made him hold a gun, then shot him dead.
We have a long history of people bearing false witness; 25 centavos can buy you two of them. They go for even less, when the police use coercive power to jog their “memory.”
Regardless of what Dela Rosa’s pusher-witness says, there are just too many reasons to doubt the police narrative.
The original claim that Kian shot first, prompting police to shoot back, has been discredited by CCTV footage showing him being dragged away by two policemen to a dead-end alley. People who now claim that the boy in the footage was not Kian probably also subscribe to conspiracy theory.
Even more damning are the autopsy results that showed Kian suffered three gunshot wounds—one in the back, one behind the left ear, and one into his left ear. Forensic experts have determined that the boy was lying face down on the ground when the first two bullets hit.
Kian was killed on Aug. 16, a Wednesday but Dela Rosa only made his “revelation” about the student on Aug. 20, four days after the dastardly deed was done.
If, as Dela Rosa claims, it was general knowledge that Kian bought drugs for his father, a feared neighborhood tough, why did it take the police four days to say so? If Kian had been identified as a notorious drug courier even before the shooting, why was this information not offered to the public immediately afterward? Or even a day later?
Where did Dela Rosa get his “intelligence” about Kian and his family? From the same Caloocan City police chief that was sacked because of the questionable shooting? Wouldn’t this official have a motive to make up stories about the victim to deodorize the fact that his men mercilessly killed the boy like a pig?
That certain politicians associated with the previous administration have jumped on the issue is almost irrelevant, because their support doesn’t make Kian’s killing any less reprehensible, or the cold-blooded killers any less guilty. These politicians from a now-discredited administration may be jumping on the bandwagon—but they certainly did not plant the seed of public outrage. That was done singlehandedly by the abusive police who dragged a boy into a dark alley in Caloocan City and executed him.
When this finally dawns on Dela Rosa and others of his ilk in the police force, maybe they will stop selling their tall tales—because we are certainly not buying them.