Rodrigo Duterte: Philippines funeral turns into protest against the President's war on drugs

More than 1,000 people have attended a funeral procession for a teenager slain by police in the Philippines last week, turning the march into one of the biggest protests yet against President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. Kian Loyd delos Santos was dragged by plain-clothes policemen to a dark, trash-filled alley in northern Manila, before he was shot in the head and left next to a pigsty, according to witnesses whose accounts appeared to be backed up by CCTV footage. The death of the 17-year old has drawn huge domestic attention to allegations by activists that police have been systematically executing suspected users and dealers, a charge the authorities deny. Most people in the Philippines support the anti-drug campaign, and Mr Duterte remains a popular leader, but questions are being asked since the death of Mr delos Santos, which came during a spike in killings across the Philippines' main island, Luzon. I want justice for Kian and all victims — including my son," said Katherine David, whose 21-year-old son was shot dead by police with two other men in January. Mourners, some of them wearing white shirts displaying the words "Justice for Kian," held flowers and small flags, and placards denouncing the killing, as the procession including vans and motorbikes moved out of delos Santos' home in Caloocan city. They waited along sidewalks, and on roofs, staircases, bridgeways and overpasses to catch a glimpse of De los Santos’ flower-draped coffin on a flatbed truck flanked with tarpaulins bearing the words “Run, Kian, Run” and “Stop the killings”. READ MORE: Thousands demand end to killings in Duterte's drug war

Mourners carried placards reading, "Stop the killings," "Police, murderers" and "Justice for Kian" as they marched for about five kilometres from a church near Delos Santos' house to the cemetery where he was buried. The parents and lawyers of Mr delos Santos filed a murder complaint against the three anti-narcotics policemen involved in the incident on Friday. If accepted, the complaint would follow at least two cases filed last year against police over President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, which has killed thousands of Filipinos, outraged human rights groups and alarmed Western governments. "We march today to bring Kian to his final resting place and to support the call for justice for all victims of Duterte’s fascist drug war," said Renato Reyes, secretary general of left-wing activist group Bayan (Nation), said in a statement.
Hundreds of sympathizers attend the funeral procession of a teenager killed allegedly due to the ongoing drug purge in the Philippines.