Drug war victim’s dad gets corrected death certificate
The father of a drug war victim received last week the corrected death certificate of his son, almost nine years after the child was killed by a stray bullet in a shootout and his body released only on the condition that bronchopneumonia would be cited as the cause of death, according to a group of human rights lawyers.
The Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS) Inc. said in a post on Facebook that Rodrigo Baylon only recently received the corrected death certificate of his son, Lenin, after a 2022 ruling by the Court of Appeals ordering the correction.
“Finally, we were able to obtain the truth. My heart is both happy and sad at the same time. He should have been a young man, 18 years old, by now. If only I can bring Lenin back and talk to him, so I can tell him that, little by little, we are able to achieve justice,” Baylon said in the post.
According to IDEALS, Lenin was with his playmates in Caloocan City when he was hit and killed by a stray bullet on Dec. 2, 2016, just three days before his tenth birthday.
Three masked gunmen were allegedly running after drug suspects when several gunshots were fired, wounding one child and killing two women as well as Lenin, who was declared dead on arrival after he was brought to a hospital.
Lenin’s family said they had to sign a waiver agreeing to list bronchopneumonia as the cause of death for his body to be released, or else they would have to pay P16,000 as fees for his autopsy.
Lawyer Mario Maderazo, counsel for the Baylons, said the family was afraid to be investigated by the police at that time.
“Of course, at that time, being investigated by the police is terrifying,” Maderazo told the Inquirer. “So, what Tatay Rod said, they just wanted at that moment to bury their child and not be questioned by the police anymore.”
‘Sense of hope’
Maderazo said he was able to meet with Baylon later on at a church in Caloocan as part of an initiative by IDEALS to document victims of the drug war.
After learning the importance of correcting his son’s death certificate, the lawyer said Baylon was convinced to file a petition.
“For us in IDEALS, we see this as strategic litigation. Strategic in the sense that, there are many victims who do not want to come out for fear of reprisal and the situation is not supportive,” said Maderazo.
The lawyer said that with the case of the Baylon family, other families of drug war victims may have a “sense of hope” and pursue the process of correcting the death certificates of their fallen relatives.
He said that in IDEALS alone, there are at least three other similar cases being handled by the group.
“By not correcting [the death certificates], this becomes part of the revictimization of the families. Their relatives were killed and even their stories were altered. So it is another form of revictimization that needs to be corrected,” Maderazo said.
“Otherwise, if it is not corrected, if ever there is a reparation or a remedy that can be given to those who were victims in the future, you foreclose your right to claim compensation or reparation,” he pointed out.
Correcting the death certificates, the lawyer said, will also help reveal any “cover-up” during the drug war of then President Rodrigo Duterte.
