Too sad. Too infuriating. If we do not rage at all, then what are we as human beings?
Emmanuel Lorica, 17. Killed Dec. 6, 2016.
Kian delos Santos, 17. Killed Aug. 16, 2017.
Jemboy Baltazar, 17. Killed Aug. 2, 2023.
All of them have religious/biblical-sounding names.
Kian delos Santos, whose surname means saint, Emmanuel Lorica, whose name means God is with us, and Jemboy Baltazar (Balthazar), traditionally remembered as one of the wise men who visited Jesus.
If names could save them, they would still be alive today. All of them have dreams. All of them enjoyed the company of their friends and their friends praised their kindness. All of them will be missed.
All of them were poor. Kian was a struggling student, making both ends meet by maintaining a variety store. Emmanuel was sleeping in an evacuation center for fire victims when killed, and Jemboy was a poor fisherman in Navotas, cleaning up a boat when he was shot.
It is not true that death equalizes us all. The three were killed, and it was easier for them to be killed by monsters turned police or agents.
All of them were killed mercilessly. All of them learned the TRUTH that at 17, everything will be taken away from them—their dreams, their rights, their dignity, their lives.
For Kian and Emmanuel, the blood war on drugs by then President Rodrigo Duterte became the cover and justification; the reason why they were killed.
For Jemboy, it was the authority that exercised its full power to kill that caused his untimely death.
It was no timely death for the three. They did not die of sickness or of an accident. They were killed, mistaken as criminals, and extrajudicially killed. They did not die of old age but at the tender age of 17—so promising, so young, they could have been assets of our nation if given the best social services by the government.
We mourn their killing. No, they were not in the wrong place and in the wrong situation. Their location at the time they were killed was the remaining space they could have as poor ones. Their location was an assurance that they are existing and breathing. They never expected to be killed there.
Remember the words of Duterte to the poor: “If you die, I’m sorry … You would say they are only killing the poor people … Well, I am sorry. I have to clean up until such time the drug lords are eliminated from the streets.”
His words echo the attitude, the system, and the authority which is anti-poor and anti-people. When someone poor is killed, his/her economic status raises the hurdle higher in seeking justice.
The three young men learned the truth at 17. How many more young lives will be wasted by the great mistake called “mistaken identity?”
Norma Dollaga is a Deaconess of the United Methodist Church. KASIMBAYAN or Kapatirang Simbahan Para sa Bayan is her episcopal assignment.
