A WITNESS to the Aug. 17 murder of Grade 11 student Kian Loyd delos Santos on Tuesday positively identified two police officers as having had a hand in the crime.

Mr. Delos Santos, 17, was killed in the course of an anti-drug operation by Caloocan City police on said date. Various accounts attest to his being outside closing his family’s store, and CCTV footage showed him being dragged by two policemen toward a corner where he was later found shot dead.

At the hearing by the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs on Tuesday, Sept. 5, the 31-year-old witness, a woman simply identified as “MC,” said she was at a close-enough distance, heading toward the basketball court that was also shown on CCTV, when she saw the three policemen who were dragging Mr. delos Santos along with them.

She said two of the policemen were holding Mr. Delos Santos when the third cop shot the boy.

“Tinulak si Kian sa babuyan. Narinig ko si Kian: Sir ‘wag po sir!’ Tapos nagpaputok na ‘yung isa, tapos ‘yung isa. Siyempre hindi ko na nakita kung saan parte sa katawan tinamaan si Kian kasi madilim eh. Pero ‘yung sunod-sunod na putok nakita ko ‘yung mukha niya,” MC narrated. (They pushed Kian toward the pigpen. I heard Kian plead to them: ‘Don’t do it, Sir!’ Then one of the cops shot him, and another one did the same. Of course, I didn’t see where Kian was shot because it was too dark. But as shots were fired one after the other, I saw his face.)

On Senator Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel’s questioning, MC identified Police Officer 3 (PO3) Arnel Oares and Police Officer 1 (PO1) Jeremias Pereda.

The third cop has been identified as PO1 Jerwin Cruz.

MC said it was only after she saw Mr. Delos Santos’s father, “Kuya Bong,” crying that she realized the teenager she saw was Kian delos Santos.

When asked if she believes that Mr. Delos Santos was a drug courier, she said that was not how she knew the 17-year-old.

“Marami na pong namatay sa lugar namin na walang kalaban-laban. Kasi ang mga pulis po… lagi na lang sa dahas, hindi sa batas. Marami po akong kaibigang namatay sa lugar namin pero walang nangyari,” MC also said. (Many in our place have been killed completely defenseless. Because the police resort to violence, not law. I’ve had many friends who were killed but nothing happened [in finding the killers].)

For their part, the accused policemen invoked their right against self-incrimination. Mr. Oares cited the case already filed against them at the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II, who also attended the hearing, said the DoJ’s preliminary report could be finished in three months.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director-General Ronald M. dela Rosa, for his part, said the accused cops are under restrictive custody. “Meaning they will be confined and restricted in a camp. They can only go out if they ask permission,” he explained.

Mr. Dela Rosa denied any policy to kill drug suspects, telling the Senate that Mr. Duterte had never told him to “kill and kill.”

“We will die for the innocent people. It’s painful to say there’s a policy of widespread killings,” Mr. Dela Rosa, appearing to fight back emotion, told the televised hearing. “The President never told me to kill and kill.”

“There’s a wide policy that allows the killings in the name of war on drugs,” Ms. Hontiveros asserted to the PNP chief. In response, Mr. Dela Rosa said he would step down if she could prove her accusation.

Senators also asked about the killing of 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz on Aug. 18 in the same neighborhood where Mr. Delos Santos was shot dead. But Mr. Arnaiz was picked up in another city in the metropolis.

Mr. Arnaiz, who the police accused of robbery, died of five gunshot wounds. A police medical examiner told the inquiry the autopsy showed he was shot while lying face down.

Friends and relatives attest to his being a model student currently enrolled in college. Another boy who accompanied Mr. Arnaiz has remained missing. — Mario M. Banzon with a report by Reuters

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