MANILA, Philippines – Slain Grade 11 student Kian Loyd delos Santos was a drug runner for his own father and uncle? Kian’s father Saldy delos Santos on Monday denied this latest charge by Philippine National Police chief Gen. Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa, calling it illogical while expressing openness to being tested for narcotics.
“Napakalabo po. Kung kami po ay nagtitinda ng drugs hindi na po kami maghihirap magtinda ng paninda. Hindi na po maghihirap magtinda ang anak ko ng tinapa,” Saldy delos Santos said Monday during an interview with dzMM radio.
[That doesn’t make any sense. If we were selling drugs, we would no longer endure having to sell food items, my son would no longer sell smoked fish.]
Saldy said he would also be ready to undergo drug test to prove that he wasn’t into narcotics. But he added that the policemen behind the death of his son should also do the same as it seemed that they were the real drug addicts, who senselessly killed an innocent child.
“P’wede kaming magpa-drug test. Sana…unahin nila ang pulis nila, baka ‘yon ang adik kasi kahit bata ang isip kaya nilang patayin eh,” said Saldy.
Kian’s father also denied that his son was also victimized by his uncles by making him sell narcotics.
Saldy said he has only one brother, a poor man like him and a member of Jehovah’s Witness, who was never involved in drug trade.
Also, Saldy dismissed Dela Rosa’s claim that he was a neighborhood thug, as PNP Chief Dela Rosa also said. Dela Rosa said neighbors were afraid to speak against Mr. Delos Santos.
“Di wala na sanang pumunta sa anak ko, wala na sanang pumunta sa amin kung gano’n kaming klaseng tao [Nobody would have gone to the wake of my son and sympathize with us if we were bad elements],” Kian’s father said.
He also denied knowing Renato “Nono” Loveras and Neneng Escopin. Loveras, who was earlier presented by the police to media, alleged that he had drug transactions with Kian and that the shabu supposedly being supplied to him by the student came from Escopin.
“Hindi po namin kilala ‘yon. Hindi ko po alam, wala po [We don’t know him (Loveras). I don’t know anything about him, nothing],” said Saldy.
He said he didn’t also know anything about Escopin as his and Kian’s lives just revolved around in alternately selling food items while his son, who didn’t even had the chance to go to a cinema, was going to school.
“Hindi ko po alam, simpleng pamumuhay lang kami, nagtitinda lang kami. Ang anak ko nag-aaral, gano’n lang rotation ng buhay namin. Anak ko nga, hindi nga nakaranas na makapanood ng sine ‘yan.”
“Pag umaga po, pag gising n’ya, six o’clock, naglalatag s’ya ng panininda. Twelve o’clock, papalitan ko po s’ya sa pagtitinda dahil papasok na s’ya sa school. Ang uwi n’ya 7:30, tapos magliligpit pa uli kami ng paninda para magsara. Parang rotation lang, gano’n lang buhay namin,” he added.
[In the morning, after waking up at 6 o’clock, he would lay the food items for sale. At twelve o’clock, it would be my turn to sell goods because he would already go to school. He would come home at 7:30 and then we would pack up the items. That was how our life was, just like a rotation.]
Saldy asked Dela Rosa to be fair and take pity on Kian and his family because they were the true victims in the government’s drug war and thus should be the ones helped by authorities.
“Sana maging patas naman po. Kaawaan n’ya naman ‘yong bata kasi wala naman po kaming alam, biktima kami dito so dapat kami po ang tulungan n’ya,” he said.
