Bishop and senator protected child witnesses

WERE it not for a few courageous Filipino bishops and priests, as well as human rights defenders — including some senators — there would probably have been more disappearances of and/or crimes against children during former president Rodrigo Duterte's war on illegal drugs. Thousands of people were summarily slain by policemen during this campaign. Among them was a 17-year-old student whose killing by three law enforcers in an alleyway in Caloocan City sparked widespread outrage.

The murder of that student, Kian de los Santos, was witnessed by his brothers, and when they were brought into the care and protection of Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who headed the Senate committee tasked with investigating the teenager's death, government agencies demanded that the witnesses be handed to them. But she refused and protected the witnesses from the government agents who, many believed, would silence them. Their testimony would expose the "shoot to kill" policy of the previous administration; thus, their testimony had to be prevented.