Drug war: They shoot children, don't they? (1)

GOTCHA

- JARIUS BONDOC

One hundred twenty-two children—aged 1 to 17—were killed in the first half alone of Rodrigo Duterte's six-year bloody drug war. "Collateral damage," he claims, as if stray bullets are to blame. But in many cases the minors directly were targeted to eliminate witnesses in other killings or for supposedly fighting back, as proxies of real targets and mistaken identity.

Only one of the 122 killings resulted in conviction, and only because the killer cops were caught on video. Families of the other victims and witnesses were silenced by threats and fear of retaliation.

Only now are the 122 child killings being brought to the fore by separate probes in the House of Representatives and Senate. But reports were compiled as far back as June 2020 by World Organization Against Torture and Children's Legal Rights and Development Center.

WOAT and CLRDC storified six of the reports in "How could they do this to my child? Extrajudicial killings of children during the war on drugs in the Philippines." Excerpts of the first three:

• Jaime, 17. Known in his Manila neighborhood as caring. Never had any problem with the law, nor included in any drug list.

On the night of July 29, 2018, a woman hired Jaime's tricyclist friend to take her to a mall. Jaime and another friend joined as back riders. A block from the mall, the woman asked to be let off to get cash for the fare.