Mother of 17 year old kid murdered by Filipino cops want justice. The question is--who will give her that now?

It's supposed to be a campaign against people who, as what Philippine president Duterte described as people who "destroy the future of Filipino kids"

" If you destroy the future of our kids, I will kill you", vows the former Davao mayor who, for 23 years ruled the city like a benevolent tyrant.

For Duterte, these drug pushers are like terrorists. Reading Duterte's mind, terrorists are likened to cockroaches, ready to be crushed anytime.

With the killing of an innocent 17-year-old Grade 11 student in Caloocan, I am interested to know who now gets the distinction of being the kind of people who really threaten and destroy the future of young Filipinos---drug pushers/addicts or blood thirsty policemen?

Kian Lyod Delos Santos, a student of Our Lady of Lourdes and a son of an OFW died several days ago, one of twelve Filipinos killed in the Oplan Galugad campaign conducted by the PNP. Oplan Galugad is supposed to target drug pushers. Since last year, the numbers of innocent people killed are now ridiculously in double figures.

Ask me how many cops got punished for killing innocents? PNP official records say just six.

Cops who summarily executed Kian were reportedly sacked by their superiors. Did these cops lose their jobs? No. They were just transferred off their stations and put into the freezer to be activated once the "heat" against them dissipates.

Are they behind bars, you asked? No. These cops still go back to their houses and they still report to work, except, of course, they just stay inside their stations. They still receive their salaries. In the US, these cops go straight to jail. Here, well, they are even promoted for being so blood thirsty.

Kian's mother rushed home and found her son inside a coffin, cold, and will never ever tell her how much he loves her.

I investigated this incident and validated that Kian is really an innocent victim of this vicious murderous rage by these demonic cops. As a father, I share the grief of Kian's parents. The mother vowed revenge but she realized that she can't---her blood lust is not as worse as those cops who brutally killed and disrespected her son.

Before when controversial killings like these happen, Dante Jimenez and his horde of volunteers rush to the house of the victim and they immediately solicit their assistance. Now, with the VACC as a staunch supporter of Duterte with some of their members enjoying government sinecures, not even the shadow of Mr. Jimenez was seen at the house of the poor kid.

Most of us rage online, but we don't see anybody going to the streets in evident anger over the brutality of it all. Are we so immune to all of these that we just shrug it off, and continue on with our lives as if nothing happened?

The blood of the innocents cries from the ground. We, who witness these killings, are partly to be blamed by God for our silence.



(During the elections, Duterte vowed to kill every single drug pusher out there. True enough, just a year in office and more than 10,000 Filipinos lie dead, most of them killed when they reportedly engaged cops in several shootouts. How many of these deaths are truly drug-related? We will never know. The immense number of those killed makes it extremely difficult for any independent investigator to really ascertain the exact number of those killed in real anti-drugs operations.

Several days ago, elements of the PNP launched what they call Oplan Galugad---a massive nationwide campaign which reportedly targetted drug pushers and addicts. More than 30 people died in Bulacan, the most number of deaths for a day ever recorded in Duterte's anti-drugs campaign. Duterte praised Bulacan cops for the bloodbath.

And the killings did not stop. Not to be bested, anti-drugs operatives swooped down on known drug lairs in Metro Manila, which included operatives from the Caloocan City police.

During my day as a crime beat reporter, there are two cities known for having the most number of drug dependents and drug pushers---Pasay and Caloocan. This killing will definitely justify a stoppage of anti-drugs operations in that city.

Kian was a sacrificial lamb, an innocent chosen at random, to save the true drug criminals selling shabu there in Caloocan.

Bato should fire every single cop now assigned in Caloocan and replace them with new ones. Bato probably thinks that by not punishing and giving disciplinary action against these erring cops, he is doing the right thing.  For Bato, the right thing is to make his boss, Duterte, happy. And what makes the 71-year-old Chief Executive happy? Whenever he hears cops mowing down people, that what completes the day for Duterte.)