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DPA
MANILA
PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday assured the public that police officers involved in the death of a 17-year-old boy during an anti-drug operation would go to jail if found guilty of framing him.
The justice department has already ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to find out if the police was liable for~the killing of Kian Loyd Delos Santos last week, Duterte said.
"Should the investigation point to liabilities by (the police), there will be a prosecution and they have to go to jail if convicted,"he said in a televised press conference.
"I assure you that there will be no whitewash in the investigation,"he added.
Hours earlier, hundreds of people braved heavy rains in Manila to join a protest rally to condemn the killing of Delos Santos, whose family and friends have denied he was involved in illegal drugs.
Witnesses have told local media that police allegedly forced Delos Santos to hold a gun and told him to run before they shot him last week.
"Please be fair," the student's father, Zaldy delos Santos, told police."We are the victims here. We are the ones you should help."
He made the appeal after authorities went on the offensive to defend the police action on Monday, saying there was information indicating the boy was a drug courier and addict.
But initial forensic evidence showed there was no gunfight and the three bullet wounds indicated the student was shot at close range in the back of the head.
The head of the Public Attorney's Office, Persida Acosta, told reporters she was recommending murder charges against the officers involved based on the initial autopsy report.
