Who silenced Kian? T
HE rounding up of pushers was to be the first case of a systematic clearing operations carried out by drug lords. Many of the victims had cardboard placed over their bodies with a warning which purport that the murder was carried out by DDS (Davao Death Squad).
(DDS was a phantom force organized sometime in 1983 by then INP Regional Director Dionisio Tan-gatue Jr. to scare the NPA hit squads at the height of the communist insurgency. It was spooky as it was popular but it has no warm bodies at all.) That audacious claim of perjured witnesses Matobato and Laranas are therefore merely figment of their imagination or of their handlers. What these witnesses failed to point out was that Mayor Duterte led in police raids against drug lords and most popular among these was the assault on a drug laboratory where a number of Chinese chemists were killed. In another dragnet an ambulance from a town adjacent to Lanao del Sur was intercepted loaded with drug contraband. An angry Duterte warned the town officials not to do their thing in Davao City or else suffer the consequence. Duterte Police operations have always been covered by media.
Kian's death was unfortunate but it was a cause of celebration by the political opposition. The sad faces are actually as farcical as their concern for Kian. The young boy could have been alive today had the tentacles of the drug menace been curbed early on. When Duterte took over the helm of government it was imminent the war on drugs will begin.
Today over 3,000 involved in drugs had been neutralized while many, including ranking government officials, are behind bars. Over a million, however, had been saved and rehabilitated. Is the nation mourning over their fate of those who refused to give up their trade and fought it out with the law? The independent surveys done by the Social Weather Station and Pulse Asia have the answer. Obviously the people had gotten tired of weak and corrupt leadership of the previous regime and the hellish environment where Kian grew up and nurtured.
Some quarters say that because the young boy was suspected to be a courier then it would have been better if Kian was kept alive for he could have spilled the beans on his pr ovi der.
Recent probes and observations moreover indicated that at the height of police operations in Caloocan there seems to be another mysterious force carrying out its own "clearing" agenda. The video clips showing Kian in long and then in short pants strongly suggest this.
Too many questions to ask and issues to be resolved. The opposition had capped the emotional propaganda with street demonstrations which ended with a whimper.
Whatever and whoever Kian was, his death was unfortunate and an irreplaceable loss to his parents. But this misfortune should not end the war on drugs. Otherwise there will be more parents who will grieve over the silence of the lambs.