Philippine teenager's burial turns into protest vs killings

A Filipino teenager at the center of the latest outcry against the president's bloody crackdown against illegal drugs was buried Saturday, with mourners turning his funeral into a protest against thousands of drug killings.

Residents line up to pay tribute to slain Kian Loyd delos Santos, a 17-year-old student, during his funeral Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in suburban Caloocan city north of Manila, Philippines. The killing of Kian by police has sparked an outcry against President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug crackdown, which has left thousands dead since assuming office in June of last year.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Hundreds of mourners and left-wing activists carried placards that read "Stop killing the poor" and "Justice for Kian" during a kilometers-long (miles-long) funeral march before Kian Loyd delos Santos was interred at a public cemetery in the Manila metropolis.

The 17-year-old student, who wanted to become a police officer, was one of more than 80 drug and crime suspects who were killed in purported gunbattles with police over three days this month in the bloodiest few days of President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug campaign. The killings sparked alarm and official investigations.

During a funeral Mass at a church, Roman Catholic Bishop Pablo David urged authorities to "stop the killings and start the healing."

The Rev. Flaviano Villanueva said that the slain student had become a symbol, and that his death and burial had "burst open the sleeping hearts and consciences of the Filipino people."

"This is proof that the country itself is screaming enough is enough, and we should end these killings," he said.

Protesters and supporters carry banners and placards as they march with the hearse of slain Kian Loyd delos Santos, a 17-year-old student, during his funeral Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in suburban Caloocan city north of Manila, Philippines. The killing of Kian has sparked an outcry against President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug crackdown, which has left thousands dead since assuming office in June of last year. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Murder and torture complaints were filed Friday against three police officers and their commander in the Aug. 16 shooting death of delos Santos in suburban Caloocan city.

"The thousands who lined up the streets and joined the funeral march of Kian delos Santos is a strong protest against Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs and the poor," left-wing leader Renato Reyes said. "The people are saying, 'Enough!'"

Police say delos Santos was a drug dealer who opened fire with a pistol during a raid. His family, however, says he was mercilessly killed by police as he was pleading for his life.

During a televised Senate hearing this past week, Commission on Human Rights Chairman Chito Gascon expressed astonishment at police claims that most of the more than 3,200 drug suspects they have gunned down since the crackdown began last year fought back, prompting law enforcers to shoot them.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (AP Photo, File)

Aside from those deaths, more than 2,000 others have died in drug-related killings, including attacks by motorcycle-riding masked gunmen, who human rights groups allege are policemen in disguise or their civilian hit men. Police deny such claims.

Delos Santos's grieving parents and some neighbors have pointed to a village security camera video that shows a man, who they say was delos Santos, being held by both arms and dragged away from near his home shortly before he was shot in a dark, muddy alley near a canal. They said the video showing him in police custody belies the police claim that he tried to escape and that he had a pistol with him.

Police officers linked to the killing acknowledged in the Senate hearing that they were the ones in the video, but said the man they were dragging away was a civilian informant who was trying to hide his face from villagers out of fear.

Duterte has expressed extraordinary support for police enforcing his crackdown, promising to pardon them if they are convicted to keep them out of jail. Amid the growing outcry, however, he ordered the arrest of the policemen linked to the killing of delos Santos and ordered an investigation.

"The president has clearly stated that the war against drugs is not a license to break the law," presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said. "This incident, however, would not deter the administration from the task of reducing criminality and illegal drugs."

"The campaign against illegal drugs would continue," Abella said.

HONOLULU (AP) — Defense chiefs from the U.S., Australia, Japan and the Philippines vowed to deepen their cooperation as they gathered Thursday in Hawaii for their second-ever joint meeting amid concerns about China's operations in the South China Sea.

The meeting came after the four countries last month held their first joint naval exercises in the South China Sea, a major shipping route where Beijing has long-simmering territorial disputes with a number of Southeast Asian nations and has caused alarm with its recent assertiveness in the waters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at a news conference after their discussion that the drills strengthened the ability of the nations to work together, build bonds among their forces and underscore their shared commitment to international law in the waterway.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the defense chiefs talked about increasing the tempo of their defense exercises.

“Today, the meetings that we have held represent a very significant message to the region and to the world about four democracies which are committed to the global rules-based order,” Marles said at the joint news conference with his counterparts.

Austin hosted the defense chiefs at the U.S. military’s regional headquarters, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, at Camp H.M. Smith in the hills above Pearl Harbor. Earlier in the day, Austin had separate bilateral meetings with Australia and Japan followed by a trilateral meeting with Australia and Japan.

Defense chiefs from the four nations held their first meeting in Singapore last year.

The U.S. has decades-old defense treaties with all three nations.

The U.S. lays no claims to the South China Sea, but has deployed Navy ships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation operations that have challenged China’s claims to virtually the entire waterway. The U.S. says freedom of navigation and overflight in the waters is in America’s national interest.

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich sea. Beijing has refused to recognize a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds.

Skirmishes between Beijing and Manila in particular have flared since last year. Earlier this week, Chinese coast guard ships fired water cannons at two Philippine patrol vessels off off Scarborough Shoal, damaging both.

The repeated high-seas confrontations have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could put China and the United States on a collision course.. The U.S. has warned repeatedly that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines — its oldest treaty ally in Asia — if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

President Joe Biden's administration has said it aims to build what it calls a “latticework” of alliances in the Indo-Pacific even as the U.S. grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing says the strengthening of U.S. alliances in Asia is aimed at containing China and threatens regional stability.

FILE - Japanese Defense Minster Minoru Kihara speaks during a meeting with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, in Washington. Austin and his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines gather in Hawaii for their second-ever meeting of defense ministers, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles speaks during a news conference at the State Department, Dec. 6, 2022, in Washington. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines gather in Hawaii for their second-ever meeting of defense ministers, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin listens during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense budget hearing Fiscal Year 2025 on Capitol Hill, April 17, 2024, in Washington. Austin and his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines gather in Hawaii for their second-ever meeting of defense ministers on Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/John McDonnell, File)