MANILA (UCAN): A court in Kalookan, Metro Manila, the Philippines, found three policemen guilty of the murder of 17-year-old student, Kian Delos Santos, during an anti-narcotics operation in August 2017. However, they were acquitted of planting evidence.
 
Arnel Oares, Jeremias Pereda and Jerwin Cruz were sentenced to at least 30 years in prison by the court on November 29 in the first conviction of police for extrajudicial killing in the 29-month anti-drugs campaign, according to human rights advocates. 
 

MANILA (UCAN): A Philippine senator, Risa Hontiveros, has proposed declaring August 16 as an annual National Day of Remembrance to mark the death of 17-year-old Kian de los Santos.
 
De los Santos death on 16 August 2017 at the hands of police during an anti-drug operation sparked national and international outrage.
 
Hontiveros said the killing “underscored the human rights atrocities committed in the name of the bloody war on drugs.”
 

MANILA (SE): The Philippines celebrated National Heroes Day on August 27, a day on which people are encouraged to make themselves familiar with the history of those who whose acts of courage enabled the country to grow as a nation and whose lives and deaths hold particular significance in the development of cultural values.
 

MANILA (SE): After a week when over 90 people died in the ongoing purge of the poor orchestrated by the president of The Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, many more people began questioning the true intention of his so-called war on drugs.
 
“But if it has done nothing else, it has shown every Filipino up for what they are,” lay missionary, John Ding, told the Sunday Examiner on August 18, two days after a 17-year-old student, Kian delos Santos, was shot in the back, even though police claim he was killed in self-defence.