Today marks the seventh year since the killings of Kian delos Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman. The three youths were killed on August 16 and 18, 2017 in Caloocan City at the height of the Duterte regime’s bloody anti-drug war.
Their cases stand out among the tens of thousands of drug war-related killings under Duterte because unlike in the cases of so many other victims, there were witnesses to Kian, Carl and Kulot’s killings and other incontrovertible proof that secured convictions for the policemen responsible for their murders.
Sadly, these convictions also stand out as mere drops in the bucket among close to 30,000 killings in Duterte’s drug war. As such, they are emblematic of what is horribly wrong about the Philippine justice system–its utter failure to render justice and exact accountability. One other thing that should be pointed out in the case of the convictions for Kian, Carl and Kulot’s killers is that mere foot soldiers have been sacrificed, and their commanders and enablers allowed to go scot-free.
What this amounts to is a justice system that serves to reinforce the culture of impunity that shields the perpetrators of heinous crimes. Hours before the killing of Kian delos Santos and two days before Carl and Kulot’s murders, Duterte gave assurance to policemen that he had their backs, even if they were to be convicted of following his orders to kill drug suspects. The cops had this in mind when they dragged Kian in full view of CCTV cameras and gunned him down in an alley.
Given the miserable failure of domestic redress mechanisms to hold perpetrators, especially high-ranking government officials accountable, institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations Human Rights Council have crucial roles to play in ensuring that justice is done. This, given the Philippine justice system’s unwillingness or inability to investigate, prosecute and convict those responsible for the horrific drug war-related killings under the Duterte regime.
The Marcos Jr. regime owes it to the tens of thousands of victims to make good on its seeming openness to cooperate with Interpol should the latter serve an ICC-issued arrest warrant for Rodrigo Duterte, Bato dela Rosa and others responsible for the drug war killings.