"We call him ‘Artadi’ but he’s as fast as LA Tenorio," said Benedictine head coach Beaujing Acot, who had been training Kenji since he was eleven years old. "He really works hard in practice. He earned his starting guard spot."
On his birthday last June 18, Kenji, an athletic scholar, vowed to his teammates that they would see him in the next UAAP season, either as a De La Salle Green Archer or an Ateneo Blue Eagle. He was, in fact, scheduled to meet with this writer to ask for advice on how to get a college basketball scholarship. He followed his dream with an inspiring passion.
But that dream will never happen.
Kenji Kanai is dead.
At around 4 a.m. Saturday, Kenji and three companions were alighting from a friend’s Mitsubishi Lancer at the jeepney stop along Katipunan Avenue in front of Ateneo, after having gone out to Tapika Bar just a few blocks down the road. One of his companions had already gotten off, and Kenji was stepping out of the left side of the vehicle, when a white Toyota Corolla with commemorative PNP license plate inscribed with the name "TIMMY" smashed into the Lancer at a very high speed, catapulting it into a spin and dragging Kanai several feet.
Kenji was crushed, as if he were inside a spent soft drink can, five of his front ribs shattering in his chest, with two rib splinters in the back puncturing his lungs, making him regurgitate blood. A part of his right arm had been ripped off in the collision, another fatal cause of loss of blood. To top it all off, his right leg was pinned in the gnarled passenger door, and it took another hour to free him, as his lifeblood poured out of him. He was dead by the time the ambulance was rushing him to the hospital. It was, by the way, opening day of the PAYA tournament, and Kanai had been looking forward to their opening game against Ateneo the following week.
The suspect, 21-year old Timothy Abujuela, was detained at Camp Jose Karingal in nearby Sikatuna Village, but was seen moving freely about inside the police station, which did not have a detention cell. A team from ABS-CBN and one from The STAR arrived before noon to take statements and visuals. Upon their departure, a crew from The Basketball Show caught videotape showing that the suspect had been transferred to an air-conditioned commander’s office inside the station, where he slept soundly, bundled in a black jacket. Meanwhile, Kenji’s mother, Susan, who had been waiting for hours after performing the gruesome task of identifying her son’s dismembered body for autopsy at Camp Crame earlier, was sitting in the stifling heat outside, barely able to stand from the shock, along with relatives and Kenji’s coaches. Some members of the group had been there for five hours before the police paid them any attention.
"He was really seeking attention the last few days," Susan told The STAR. "He would wake me up at 4 a.m., because he didn’t want to leave for school unless I was the one who cooked his baon. Kenji was always so playful. He played with me like we were buddies. He studied very hard when they didn’t have practice. I wanted to give him everything."
Police Superintendent Herminigildo Valdez explained to the owners and coaches of Benedictine that they moved the suspect for fear that he might escape. But that seemed improbable, since Kanai’s family and friends were right outside the police station, and they were inside a police camp, after all. Besides, the entire front of the suspect’s car was smashed in, with both airbags having been deployed and the windshield spider-webbed with cracks. Coach Acot complained that they could have just handcuffed the suspect, and no physical tests had been conducted on him, who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. It appeared as if preferred treatment was being bestowed. Valdez promised immediate action.
However, Acot claims that PO2 Renato Sunga, who was assigned to handle the case, became uncooperative after they filed charges of homicide through reckless imprudence at the fiscal’s office. Acot says that Sunga agreed to the fiscal’s instructions to bring Abujuela to Camp Crame to be tested for illegal substances, and instead had him brought to a private hospital for routine physical exams. Acot and Sunga supposedly engaged in a shouting match. The family of the victim suspects that a "higher power" may be intervening in the case. The original spot report prepared by the police said that the suspect’s Toyota "accidentally" bumped the idle Mitsubishi, even though that fact had not yet been determined. The family refused to sign the report.
Saturday night, Kanai’s teammates gathered at the funeral at Claret School in Quezon City to pay their respects, and commiserate with Susan and her nine-year old daughter. Many were too stunned to cry, since Kenji had just gone swimming with some of them before practice Friday. Kenji’s father arrived from Japan late that night.
It appears that the suspect’s Toyota was speeding coming down the Katipunan flyover that crosses above Aurora Boulevard, and swerved sharply to avoid the large concrete dividers that protect the U-turn slot in front of Ateneo, when he careened into the parked Mitsubishi.
Tomorrow, the Tiger Sharks will bury their friend and teammate Kenji Kanai, their young minds still struggling to grasp the senseless loss. What will happen next? Will Kenji find peace and justice soon? Or will he become another statistic, another forgettable headline in a newspaper’s police reports? Will the details of his tragic death be erased, like the large dried pool of blood that is slowly being wiped away by tires of passing vehicles on Katipunan?
God forbid.