Bishops call for end to shootings after slaying of 9-year-old boy and his father in a convenience store
Catholic bishops and rights groups are calling for swift justice following the killing of a father and his young son.
Two unidentified assailants shot Jomarie Santillan, 30, and his son Jaycee, 9, inside a convenience store in Navotas City, Manila, on Oct. 17.
Police said the victims were inside the store preparing food when suspected members of a vigilante group stormed in.
Two bystanders were hit by stray bullets, one of them was in critical condition.
The bullet that killed Santillan was the same bullet that killed his son, according to a police report.
The incident sparked outrage among Philippine human rights groups.
"Poor people are not safe"
“The killing of Jomarie Santillan and his nine-year-old boy has once again triggered fear in this country. Poor people are not safe. Anyone could just enter private property and kill any person at any time of the day, including an innocent child. Whoever did this had no conscience,” Ginalyn Ramos of the Society of Human Rights- Philippines, told UCA News.
Police are looking at a drug case angle although Santillan had not formally faced any illegal drug complaint, according to the authorities.
“We are looking at the angle of drugs, if Santillan was involved in any drug syndicate or illegal sale. Although he had no criminal record pertaining to the possession, sale, and or use of illegal drugs. Let’s wait for the investigation,” police investigator Sergeant Mark Alipio told UCA News.
If Santillan’s case is drug-related, the killing of his nine-year-old son would be the latest addition to the more than 100 children killed in a drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.
In 2020, the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the Children’s Legal Rights and Development and Care reported that at least 129 children had been killed in the country’s drug war, allegedly by police assassins or their allied assailants.
The human rights group said the figure was “a conservative number.”
“For heaven’s sake, stop the killing"
“This number was just the tip of the iceberg. Children are not collateral damage. They are human persons just like the victims killed,” Ramos added.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines condemned the slayings and pleaded for the killings to stop.
“For heaven’s sake, stop the killing! There is a saying that goes, ‘The death of every human being diminishes us all.’ Let us not allow our humanity to continue to be diminished by accepting these acts of violence as normal. They are cruel, abnormal and inhuman,” Bishop David told UCA News.
The prelate said there were “still hundreds of deaths” in his diocese in Manila that remain unresolved.
Retired Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes said the “senseless killings” must stop and called on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to prioritize killings that involved the poor.
“I call on President Marcos to expedite the investigation, especially the killings that involved the poor, in their poor communities. They are the most vulnerable members of society,” Bishop Bastes told UCA News.
Meanwhile, Navotas City Mayor John Rey Tiangco strongly condemned the shooting promising “swift justice” for the victims.
"We in the city government extend our deep condolences to the family of the victims and vow to give them the assistance they need," Tiangco told reporters on Oct. 19.