MANILA — One Taft, a progressive alliance of student councils along Taft Avenue, together with human rights organizations, staged the Black Friday Protest on March 14 in front of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila.

Various speakers expressed solidarity with the demands to convict former President Rodrigo Duterte and bring justice to the victims of his so-called war on drugs. 

Emily Soriano, the mother of 16-year-old Angelito Soriano, who was killed during Duterte’s term, emphasized the brutality of Duterte’s rule.

“My son was not a drug addict; he was a well-behaved child. But why was he killed? I thought it was drugs that they were going to solve, not people. That’s why I am fighting for my son,” she said in Filipino. 

She added, “If her [Kitty Duterte’s] child can see her father in jail, I will never see my child again.”

In a post-protest interview, Ruben Carlos Gabas from SULONG TUP – Manila, one of the student organizations under One TAFT, expressed that Duterte’s arrest would only be a partial form of justice.

“This fight does not end when Duterte is jailed. This is a culture that we need to instill in ourselves and in everyone—that there must be working justice, working morality, and we can only achieve that through holding them accountable with the strength of the masses,” he said in Filipino. 

According to Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center., at least 122 children were killed during Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

The protest concluded with a noise barrage to amplify the protesters’ demands, followed by a candle-lighting ceremony to commemorate the lives lost to extrajudicial killings.

The same protest was also held simultaneously in Katipunan in Quezon City. 

Photos and text by JIAN ZHARESE JOEIS SANZ