By Akbayan president Rafaela David
We welcome the Supreme Court decision affirming the murder convictions of three police officers in the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos during an anti-drug operation, a rare instance of accountability in the Philippines’ bloody war on drugs. This ruling stands as a long-awaited measure of justice for Kian and signals hope that courts can uphold the rights of victims amidst decades of impunity.
This is a good day for justice — not only for Kian but for all the victims of the war on drugs. Families have endured the pain of losing loved ones to Duterte’s war on the poor with little hope for accountability. Today, we witness an important step forward in our fight for justice.
While this decision marks an important milestone, accountability must not stop here. We hope that justice will continue to flow for Kian and all the victims of extrajudicial killings. Hindi dapat matigil dito. Dapat mahuli at maconvict ang lahat ng sangkot sa tokhang -- from those who pulled the trigger to those who engineered and funded the extrajudicial killings.
We call on legislators, civil society and the Filipino people to seize the ruling as renewed motivation to end cycles of violence and impunity in the campaign against drugs and to enact the Truth and Reparations Commission Bill.
This decision should strengthen the call for the passage of the Truth and Reparations Commission Bill to investigate not just Kian’s case, but to expose the truth about the whole drug war, and to prevent more families from suffering the same loss.