BAGUIO CITY – Wake up to the emergent “fascism” and fight. That was the call made by Mila Singson of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) to passersby at Malcolm Square, Baguio City on Saturday afternoon, as protesters timed their rally with the funeral of Kian delos Santos, the 17-year-old Caloocan schoolboy killed allegedly in cold blood by police on an anti-drug sweep.
The Duterte’s administration’s war on drugs is a war on the poor Filipino people, said Singson, whose CHRA was one of several groups that mobilized for an indignation rally led by the Tongtongan ti Umili (TTU) Metro Baguio, Anakbayan Metro Baguio and the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance (CPA) and Kabataan Partylist Cordillera .
“Maysaak met nga ina ken adda dua a teenager nga annak ko, saan ko a kayat a maipada iti napasamak ken Kian a pinatay da a kasla manok ket awan pay basol na,” (I am a mother too, and I have two sons who are in their teenage years. I do not want them to suffer the same fate as Kian who was murdered like a chicken and he had done nothing wrong),” Singson said.
Parents like her, as well as those with brothers and sisters – everyone, in fact – has all the reasons to be enraged over what happened to Kian, Singson stressed. The incident shows, in her view, how the administration refuses to acknowledge that poor people have the right to live and not be subjected to unjust treatment by the government.
“Naggapu met lang iti ngiwat ti presidente, a nu diay tiliwen ti pulis ket saan a lumaban, palabanen da, nu awan paltog na, ikkan da ti paltog ken nu saan a tumaray ket patarayen da tapno adda rason a mapapatay,” (It came from the mouth of the President: that if the person the police are going to catch will not fight back, they should make him do so. (If he has no gun,then give him a gun and if he will not run, then make him run so that there will be a reason to kill him),” Singson said, quoting Duterte in one of his rambling speeches blamed for empowering the rogue cops.
Singson said the people should not wait for what happened to Kian to befall their loved ones. No one, she stressed, is condoning the drug trade and drug-related henious crimes but the ones who are really involved and those who are the big fish in spreading drugs should be persecuted.
Luke Bagangan of Anakbayan-Metro Baguio said that Duterte’s war on drugs is a manifestation that this administration is not really serious in bringing change that will uplift the lives of Filipinos. “Kung titingnan kung sinu-sino ang mga namatay sa kampanya ng gobyernong ito ay karamihan ay mga maralita,” (Please note that most of those killed in this campaign of the government are poor),” he said.
Duterte and his cohorts have failed to see the problem of poverty that mires Filipinos in extreme hunger and desperation, Bagangan added.
