Justice for Kian: HK group condemns killing of OFW’s son

Justice for Kian (photo from the Facebook page of Bayan Hongkong & Macau).

A militant migrants’ group in Hong Kong has condemned the killing of a 17-year-old, son of an overseas Filipino worker, in an anti-drug operation on Wednesday in Caloocan City.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, Bayan Hongkong & Macau said the death of Kian Loyd delos Santos should lead OFWs who supported President Duterte to reflect on the flaws of blindly following President Duterte and his policies.

The Duterte administration on Friday, meanwhile, said Delos Santos’ death was an isolated one.

“The drug war implemented by a rotten and corrupt system and framed on murdering with impunity has also claimed family members of OFWs including innocent ones like Delos Santos.

“While the drug war remains on a murderous streak and not on resolving the causes that enable the drug problem, our people including our loved ones will not be secure,” said Eman Villanueva, Bayan Hongkong & Macau chairperson.

Reports said Delos Santos ran when a drug suspect handed him packets of shabu. Police then gave him a gun.

The boy asked the police what he would do with the gun, the police told him to run.

In a CCTV camera footage, Delos Santos was seen being dragged away by plainclothes police officers. His body was found with the illegal drug and a gun, none of which belonged to him, his family said.

“Imagine the heartache of going home to your son’s funeral, savagely killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time…this is the stuff of nightmares,” said Villanueva.

The group also urged the government to prosecute the police officers involved in the killing of the Delos Santos.

“But President Duterte should be viewed as equally guilty.  His war on drugs has left a generation of families mourning for unnatural deaths; deaths that could have been avoided [had] drug use [been] viewed as an issue covered by several factors, including the systemic poverty these families are mired in,” Villanueva said.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the incident was “isolated” as he added Duterte would not tolerate police abuses.

“He will defend the police in their carrying out of duties. However, he will also not tolerate any abuse and breaches of the law,” Abella added.