Justice for Zara Alvarez and Kian delos Santos, justice for all EJK victims under Duterte
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS STATEMENT
17 August 2026
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
Justice for Zara Alvarez and Kian delos Santos, justice for all EJK victims under Duterte
Karapatan-Negros human rights worker Zara Alvarez was gunned down on August 17, 2026 near her home in Bacolod City. Seventeen-year old student Kian delos Santos was taken from his home in Caloocan City, accused of being a drug courier, dragged to a dark spot and shot dead on August 16, 2017.
Together, Zara and Kian represent the faces of victims of extrajudicial killings in the time of Duterte—one, an activist, and the other, a drug suspect.
Zara was the 13th Karapatan human rights defender killed and one of 422 political activists summarily executed under Duterte. Kian is one of up to 30,000 individuals killed by the previous regime on suspicion of using or dealing in drugs.
To this day, neither Zara nor Kian has attained real justice.
There has been no progress in Zara Alvarez’s case.
As for Kian, the three policemen who killed him may be serving sentences of reclusion perpetua, with their convictions already affirmed by the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
But none of their superiors has been held accountable under the country’s justice system, and certainly not Duterte, their commander in chief, who, only a few days before Kian’s killing, goaded the police to kill and disregard human rights.
Rank injustice reigns under a justice system that has not only failed to hold accountable the perpetrators and masterminds of extrajudicial killings under the former regime. Injustice likewise reeks from the present regime that continues the same killings and protects the killers.
KARAPATAN and HUSTISYA stand firmly with Zara and Kian’s families and friends and those of all other victims of extrajudicial killings in their ongoing quest to hold accountable both those who pulled the trigger and those who barked the orders and enabled the perpetrators and will not rest until true justice has been meted.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.