Philippine bishop refutes sainthood claims for drug war victim

"DID YOU KNOW? The process to have Kian delos Santos recognised as an official saint of the Church has already begun, and many are hoping he will be officially acknowledged as a saint soon," reads a Tagalog-language Facebook graphic that racked up more than 2,600 shares.

It was posted January 18, 2026 by "Twenty Eight", a page with over 2.8 million followers that regularly publishes satirical and sensational content.

"The process of recognising him as a saint is not just a formality, but a way of honouring the stories of goodness, bravery and faith that Kian shared with the nation."

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on February 2, 2026, with a red X added by AFP

Three policemen were sentenced to decades in prison in November 2018 for murdering the 17-year-old Delos Santos during an anti-narcotics sweep, the first conviction of officers carrying out former president Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs (archived link).

They claimed the teenager was a drug courier who fired at them while resisting arrest in 2017, but CCTV footage showed two of the policemen dragging the unarmed boy in a dark alley in Manila's Caloocan city moments before he was shot dead (archived link).

Duterte, who had vowed to pardon authorities involved in his bloody crackdown, is detained at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and awaits proceedings over alleged crimes against humanity linked to his narcotics campaign (archived link).

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David -- the bishop of Caloocan and a member of the Roman Curia, the Vatican body that helps the pope run the Catholic Church -- paid tribute to Delos Santos and other drug war victims on Facebook on December 22, 2025 (archived here and here).

His post appeared to trigger a wave of online claims targeting Delos Santos.

Similar posts about Delos Santos being made a saint circulated across Facebook, triggering reactions from users poking fun at Delos Santos.

"Saint drug runner," read one comment. Another said: "These people have seriously gone mad."

However, there have been no official reports about a cause being initiated for his sainthood as of February 4, 2025.

'No ongoing cause'

David, an outspoken drug war critic,  said there was "no truth" to the claim.

"It's a fake news," he told AFP on January 30.

Leo-Martin Ocampo, a researcher at the Center for Theology, Religious Studies, and Ethics at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, separately told AFP on January 27: "There is no ongoing cause (in non-ecclesiastical terms, case) for beatification and canonisation initiated about Kian delos Santos" (archived link).

He added that the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' newly created commission for the causes of saints has identified 22 ongoing cases, and Delos Santos is not among them (archived link).

He explained that the process of sainthood begins only when a person is found to sufficiently have a "reputation of either sanctity or martyrdom" and involves a thorough local investigation, Vatican study and verified miracles before a candidate can be declared a saint (archived link)

Ocampo said "this is a very thorough and lengthy process" and that such false claims about Delos Santos appear to "make a mockery of extrajudicial killing victims".

AFP has debunked other claims about Duterte's war on drugs here.