MANILA, Philippines — Detained Senator Leila de Lima petitioned the Supreme Court on Tuesday for a “legislative furlough” to allow her to attend the August 24 Senate hearing into the killing of Caloocan City high school student Kian Llyod delos Santos by police.
The “very urgent supplemental motion for legislative furlough” was filed at 8:43 a.m.
De Lima is detained at the Philippine National Police custodial center in Camp Crame while awaiting trial on drug charges filed against her by the Department of Justice.
Also on Tuesday, the senator challenged President Rodrigo Duterte, in her 138th “dispatch” from Camp Crame “to issue a clear and categorical order to the entire police force to STOP THE KILLINGS NOW.”
“Any other way to try to appease the growing outrage sparked by the Kian killing and other recent incidents of summary execution under the mantle of the ‘One Time, Big Time’ operations would be insufficient as it is hypocritical,” De Lima said, apparently referring to Duterte’s promise Monday evening to punish the policemen involved in Delos Santos’ death if they are found guilty of murder.
The 17-year old senior high school student was one of more than 80 persons police acknowledged killing in anti-narcotics operations last week, considered the deadliest weekly tally in the war on drugs the Duterte administration has waged since last year, which is estimated to have claimed upwards of 12,000 lives.
The death of Delos Santos sparked outrage over the perceived extrajudicial killings that have marked the drug war after witnesses and closed circuit television footage tended to indicate the youth had been executed and not killed in a shootout as police claimed.
READ DE LIMA’S PETITION: