To the policemen: We now doubt our safety when you are around. We are teenagers, much like Kian Loyd delos Santos, the 17-year-old boy who was killed last Aug. 16. We are merely a year younger than him, some of us even the same age as he is. There are other people years younger than him who have been killed and have not been given the justice they really deserve. We may be young, but we love our country and we are not blind to the many issues that have risen within the Philippines.
We have been reading the news about extrajudicial killings since the war on drugs started on June 30, 2016. It’s painful for us to see what our country has become. Everyone has the right to life and the right to justice but with all these extrajudicial killings that have been happening, that does not seem to be the case in the Philippines. Hundreds and thousands of lives are taken each day just by their supposed links to drugs, with most of these links acted upon by authorities without being proven to be legitimate.
In the case of Kian, police admitted that they received intel from social media after they killed him. If this is how our justice system works, we all better stay locked up in our homes. Even we students can suffer the same fate Kian did.
We acknowledge that the drug problem must be solved because it is destroying so many lives. However, the government’s war on drugs through violent means is not the answer. Kian is among thousands of people killed in this campaign. His death was caught on CCTV which shows that he was framed. In a country where policemen are paid to kill those linked to drugs, this is not very surprising.
There are many ways to solve this without having to declare war on drugs. Instead of killing people, everyone should remember that each person has the right to justice so whether they are innocent or not, they deserve a trial. They could be sentenced to life imprisonment, depending on the gravity of the matter.
Justice is something that every single person should have but with news after news about the war on drugs, it seems that it has been pushed aside, stepped on, and not given importance anymore. We mourn Kian’s death because, aside from being innocent, what happened to him is a very troubling reflection of the state of our country. Instead of feeling safe and secure, most of us are now afraid because our policemen, who should be protecting us, are now the ones killing anyone they suspect is involved in the drug trade. Instead of implementing the law, they have been violating it by depriving these suspects due process so they can defend themselves in court.
KYLA BALBOA, PHOEBE BELLO, BIANCA DELA CRUZ, TISH DELA FUENTE and TRISHA PLAGA