‘Teen killed before drugs links known’
Drug war won’t stop: Duterte
MANILA, Aug 24, (RTRS): Philippine police on Thursday told a Senate inquiry that a high school student killed last week by anti-drugs officers had been involved in narcotics, but officers only learned of that the day after they shot him dead.
The death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, one of thousands of Filipinos killed during the country’s fierce war on drugs, has stirred unprecedented public attention on to what activists say are executions and systematic abuses by police backed steadfastly by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Roberto Fajardo, the Northern Police District chief who was relieved of his duty, told the hearing there was no specific target of the Aug. 16 operation in Manila’s Caloocan City, but police could confirm Delos Santos was involved in drugs.
Asked if those drugs links were known after the killing, Fajardo said: “Yes. We have to check the background. We checked after.”
He said a drug suspect arrested the following day confirmed Delos Santos was dealing drugs.
Chito Bersaluna, the former Caloocan police chief, said Delos Santos could be tied to the drugs trade by a recovered cellphone and “based on what came out on social media” after his killing.
Those admissions will add to the growing scrutiny on police behind a crackdown that Duterte on Wednesday said would not stop. He said there was no justification for the student’s killing, and police responsible would face justice.
Earlier police reports said Delos Santos was killed because he was carrying drugs and shot at plain-clothes officers who tried to arrest him. His family has dismissed that as a lie.
Security camera footage showed two policemen dragging a man matching the description of Delos Santos to a alley where he was found dead with a gun in his left hand.
Three police accused of involvement in the killing said little during the inquiry. One refused to speak, while the other two said the individual on the CCTV camera was their “asset”, and was not Delos Santos.
Critics accused Duterte of turning a blind eye to police abuses, with an unquestioning acceptance of an official police line that typically says those killed were all drug dealers who had violently resisted arrest.