Kian delos Santos, a victim of the drug war, was never found guilty by authorities of being a “drug runner” or “pusher,” as no substantial evidence was ever presented.
A spliced clip from a documentary of GMA’s “Reporter’s Notebook” has circulated on TikTok, showing arrested drug suspect Renato “Nono” Loveras accusing Kian of being a “drug runner.”
In the clip, Loveras claimed he received illegal drugs from the 17-year-old as a courier of a supplier named “Neneng.” This was the sole basis the Caloocan City police used to justify their anti-illegal drug operation against Kian during the “One Time, Big Time” operations in 2017.
The edited videos online either showed overlay text labeling Kian as a drug runner or featured user commentary accusing him of being a drug pusher, taking Loveras’ account alone as truth.
RATING: This is misleading.
Facts
Loveras’ claims, which can be viewed from 8:10 to 8:22 mark of the documentary, were not acknowledged during the 2017 Senate probe into Kian’s killing nor by the Caloocan Regional Trial Court that handled the murder case in 2018, due to the weak evidence presented by the police.
Former Caloocan City Police Chief Chito Bersaluna, who was also dismissed, testified before the Senate on Aug. 24, 2017, saying they verified Loveras’ claim through social media. It, however, turned out to include several fake Facebook accounts that also alleged Kian was a known drug user in Caloocan City.
At the same hearing, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said its probe found that Loveras had lied and that his arrest was “staged to conceal the crime” committed by the police officers. Kian’s family, friends and neighbors also vouched for Kian’s innocence.
Why we fact-checked this
A wave of posts with a similar narrative of downplaying the experiences of drug war victims’ families and discrediting the victims themselves has been spreading online since mid-March.
It started around the time Duterte was arrested on March 11 over crimes against humanity charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read the full story on Philstar.com.