The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) expresses its heartfelt condolences with the family and friends of construction worker Eric Saber, who died of shotgun wounds inflicted by the police during the September 21 riot. Saber’s death highlights the police brutality and human rights violations in the police’s response to the riots.

We condemn the Philippine National Police (PNP) for Saber’s death. We demand that the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government investigate the PNP’s handling of the September 21 riot, learn the most important lessons, and hold accountable those responsible for Saber’s death and other instances of police brutality and rights violations.

In the afternoon of September 21, Saber got off the Recto station of the LRT and was crossing the street to ride a jeepney home when he was shot by the police which was then responding to the riot in Mendiola. We refuse to treat Saber’s life as cheap, the way the police establishment and many elites consider the lives of poor Filipinos, and we seek justice for his untimely and tragic death.

We condemn the following human rights violations: the arrest of more than 200 individuals, most of whom were innocent bystanders and under-aged youth; the rendering incommunicado of those arrested for days; the denial of medical attention to those arrested; and the physical abuse and torture inflicted on many among those arrested.

We likewise condemn the following actions carried out by the police in response to the September 21 riot: firing guns that resulted in a person’s death in a stray bullet, beating up protesters and bystanders alike, using teargas and pressurized water against the protesters, and using a civilian shield while firing a gun.

These human rights violations clearly do not conform with policing principles of legality, necessity and proportionality. The police response was an overkill, as if the police forces were paranoid. The initial actions of the youth protestors can still be considered tolerable and clearly did not pose a threat to public order and safety.

We condemn Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla for lying to the public about the very facts of the police response to the riot. We deplore Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso’s handling of the whole incident which evinces the disgusting mindset of an authoritarian father who is trying to teach his children a lesson. Serving in government should mean upholding the democracy, human rights and basic facts.

The PNP’s handling of the September 21 riot of unarmed youth protesting extreme corruption in government shows that it is still the PNP that was instrumentalized by former President Rodrigo Duterte. It is still the PNP of the Oplan Tokhang that killed thousands of poor Filipinos and of the extra-judicial killing and unjust detention of labor and social movement activists.

We support the efforts of the legislators of the Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan or Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives to push for an investigation into the police response to the September 21 riot. President Marcos Jr himself, who encouraged Filipinos to protest against corruption and who claims to uphold human rights and democratic principles, should push for an investigation and for holding those responsible for rights violations accountable.