Kian’s uncle pleads: Don’t ‘tokhang’ VP Sara impeachment

The uncle of Kian delos Santos, the 17-year-old boy who was killed during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, urged the Senate to push through with Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment.

In JP Soriano’s report on “24 Oras” on Wednesday, Randy delos Santos urged the Senate not to "tokhang" the impeachment trial.

 “Ang mga pamilya ay natokhang. Sana ho huwag na tokhangin ang hinaing reklamo laban sa ating pangalawang pangulo [Families experienced the tokhang. We hope that the complaint against the Vice President will not be killed],” Randy said at the Tindig Pilipinas press conference on Wednesday.

"Tokhang" refers to the previous administration's policy of going door to door to "knock and plead" with people to stop using illegal drugs, but the word has informally taken on a darker meaning of being summarily killed, due to the thousands of deaths during the Duterte drug war. 

“To the senators! Enough with the dribbling! You are not the spectators. You are the court. Let the trial begin! and let the evidence be laid bare,” incoming ML Party-list Representative Leila de Lima said at the same event.

Both De Lima and Tindig Pilipinas, a coalition of civil society organizations also waved peach-colored ribbons to symbolize that the impeachment process should proceed.

According to De Lima, a former justice secretary, any plan to dismiss an impeachment case in the Senate is prohibited under the constitution.

“Hindi rin ito batas na kapag matapos na yung 19th Congress ay kailangan i-refile sa 20th Congress [It is not a measure that needs to be refiled in the 20th Congress once the 19th Congress ends],” De Lima said.

The first article of impeachment against the Vice President refers to her assertion that she had arranged the assassination of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez if she were to be killed.

For Kiko Aquino-Dee, grandson of former president Corazon Aquino and one of the impeachment complainants, the vice president’s alleged threats should be enough for trial.

“For those of us who are complainants, the case is very clear. You can’t have a Vice President that hires assassins; in what country is that an acceptable thing to do? We hope that this is clear for our senators and if they want to say that it’s OK for a vice president and for any citizen to hire an assassin, to kill another citizen, they are free to say that in an impeachment hearing,” he said.

GMA Integrated News has reached out to the Vice President’s camp for comment.

Tindig Pilipinas said starting next week, they will start staging a protest to urge the Senate to start the vice president’s impeachment trial. — Mariel Celine Serquiña/BM, GMA Integrated News