Public execution of a child

The “COLD BLOODED PUBLIC EXECUTION” of 17-year-old – Grade 11 student Kian Loyd de los Santos is the tipping point for President Rodrigo Duterte’s all-out war on illegal drugs in the Philippines. For the first time the DU30 administration faces a situation where people from all walks of life and across party lines and politics, have publicly expressed their anger and indignation against the impunity of scalawags in the police force who are so confident and so cold blooded they think they can kill a minor, a 17-year-old child the same way they would shoot a dog or a worthless criminal.

For the first time since the election of President Rodrigo Duterte into office, we now read many personal posts on Facebook expressing their anger and condemnation and disregarding the possibility of being trolled or bullied because even DU30 supporters are angry at the scalawags. The murder is the tipping point because the finger of blame is now being pointed at the President for several reasons; his critics blame him for encouraging or motivating the police to carry on killing and publicizing their body counts. The more sober and neutral people are criticizing DU30 for not stepping in to discipline and differentiate between legitimate police work versus outright murder. It is the tipping point because the blood of the innocent has been spilled on the ground.

President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly declared that he will support his policemen as long as they do their job and it is done in a legitimate operation. By all accounts both video and witnesses, Kian Loyd de los Santos was randomly picked up, marched by two plain clothes “policemen,” told to hold a .45 caliber handgun and fire it, presumably to get the child’s fingerprint and to establish gunpowder residue on his arm. Then he was told to run for his life like many repeat offenders who are shot in cold blood.

The men who killed Kian no longer saw or made a difference between a “minor” and an adult. They were no longer concerned about doing a clean job. For them, Kian Loyd de los Santos was just a body count that would increase their “kill score.” What they did was a public execution. This is not the work of policemen. This is the work of murderers. If the public execution of Kian is used as a gauge or measurement of the anti-illegal drugs campaign, we can now say that the war has just turned into genocide were innocent civilians, women and children die to be a “kill score.”

The executioners of Kian did more than kill a child, they have now by their impunity, laid the blame on President Duterte.

Many of us support the anti-illegal drug war but like in any war, we do not support nor will we tolerate or quietly stand by while children are being murdered in cold blood or publicly executed. People have found their voice and expressed their indignation over the weekend, now it is the turn and responsibility of President Rodrigo Duterte to execute justice against those who discredit his efforts and his advocacy, to publicly declare his condemnation against men with such cold blooded impunity.

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While the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board or LTFRB is busy nailing the stake of law through the heart of the company Uber, can someone remind them that the mere suggestion or any action where one party is placed at an economic disadvantage is ground for administrative or criminal charges under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices act or RA 3019. I don’t know if the LTFRB officials realized that by saying or suggesting that Uber drivers can or should move over to Grab Taxi etc. could constitute or be seen as giving an unfair advantage or favor by way of their official or public pronouncement. I’m no lawyer like their spokesperson but a number of people came to the same conclusion that the LTFRB was out for the kill and the best way to do so was to make Uber drivers move to Grab Taxi. 

In the mean time, can someone also tell the LTFRB board members that East Avenue in Quezon City as well as the parking lot of the Land Transportation Office is not LTFRB property. Many drivers as well as broadcast media anchors have been complaining why the LTFRB is being allowed by the Quezon City government, by Secretary Art Tugade and by the DPWH to squat on East Avenue where they have parked impounded vehicles and left them there for weeks if not months. Vehicle owners pay Road Users Tax but we can’t use a vital part of East Avenue because an entire lane has been occupied and filled with impounded vehicles.

When I gave a lecture at the LTO head office, I discovered that the “squatters” problem created by the LTFRB extended inside the LTO where several vans and trucks have also been dumped or impounded. This policy and conduct of the LTFRB management is embarrassing and makes the LTO look bad because many people associate the area as the area of the LTO. In fact an employee of the LTO I talked with at the parking lot stressed that the LTFRB is there as a courtesy provided by the LTO.

Ironically, it seems that Secretary Tugade wants the people at LTO East Avenue to move to Clark in Pampanga. If anyone should move to Clark because they constantly lack “impounding space” it should be the LTFRB. Dump all the impounded vehicles at the gunnery range or Crow Valley. The LTO East avenue is a modern day  “historical site” that should be renovated and developed and never commercialized, sold or given to other agencies.

I don’t know why, but I can’t shake the suspicion that someone or some people at the DOTr and the LTFRB maybe trying to box out or out position the LTO so that when the rumored merger of the two offices take place, it would be LTFRB officials who will be King of the Castle. I hope not.

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