The teenager's family visits his grave to mark one year since he was killed by cops in Navotas City
MANILA, Philippines – Jerhode Jemboy Baltazar’s family remembered the teenager on his first death anniversary on Friday, August 2.
Jessa and Jeraldine, Jemboy’s sisters, visited his final resting place in La Loma Cemetery with priests Father Flavie Villanueva and Father Eduardo Vasquez Jr. Their legal counsels from IDEALS also joined the family.
“It was around this time, right? We were already looking for his body around this time last year,” Jeraldine recalled.
Jemboy was very close to her older sisters because they took care of him while their mother was working overseas.
The 17-year-old boy was killed by cops in a river near their home in Navotas City. He was mistaken by the police for his friend, John Rey Basie, who also killed by unknown assailants only months after Jemboy was slain.
His death, which sparked massive outcry and criticism against the police, was among the biggest human rights cases under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,
Some critics likened him to Kian delos Santos, the 17-year-old teen killed at the height of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
Although Jemboy’s case moved faster compared to other killings, the police suspects only got lighter penalties. In February, a Navotas court only convicted one cop, Police Staff Sergeant Gerry Maliban, but not of murder but of homicide. Four others – Police Staff Sergeant Niko Pines Esquilon, Police Executive Master Sergeant Roberto Balais Jr., Police Corporal Edmard Jake Blanco, Patrolman Benedict Mangada – were convicted of illegal discharge of firearm and sentenced to four months in prison.
Police Staff Sergeant Antonio Bugayong Jr. was acquitted.
“We are committed to exploring and exhausting all legal remedies available to them, working alongside them every step of the way to ensure that justice is served within the bounds of the law,” said Ansheline Bacudio, the lawyer of Jemboy’s family. – Rappler.com
