To bury a son

"I wish we would be recognized all over the Philippines, so that before I die, I would have been able to contribute something, to make a name."

Those words were spoken by Kenji Kenneth James Kanai in an interview with The Basketball Show in October of 2003. He was being featured as part of the Selecta Moo dribblers, the only high school basketball team in the Philippines that performed basketball dribbling and drills exhibitions in public. He was fourteen.

Tuesday, at 2 p.m., the Kanai family buried their sixteen-year old son, Kenji, at the Eternal Gardens memorial park. A surprising turnout of friends and former teammates flocked to the final rites, almost all of them sporting white t-shirts printed with the words "WE LOVE KENJI" on them. No one was able to suppress their tears, least of all his teammates, who were looking forward to contending for a PAYA championship with him this season.

The young point guard, a senior at the Benedictine International School, was crushed by a speeding Toyota Corolla being driven by 21-year old Tommy Abejuela as he was alighting from a friend’s car beneath the pedestrian overpass along Katipunan in front of Ateneo de Manila. His ribs were shattered and part of his right arm was torn off, resulting in massive blood loss. Since police and emergency personnel were unable to extricate him from the vehicle immediately, he bled to death. His mother, Susan, has been placing flowers and candles at the site of the accident.

Unfortunately, the interference of certain police officers has not only caused additional emotional hurt to the Kanai family, but has also done damage to their case against Abejuela. Upon his arrival at Camp Karingal after the accident Saturday morning, the suspect was accorded special treatment by the authorities, headed by Police Superintendent Hermenigildo Valdez and PO2 Renato Sunga. Abejuela was never tested for alcohol and/or drugs, which is supposedly standard procedure in traffic accidents. Secondly, the suspect moved about freely inside the police station, without the benefit of handcuffs or even a detention cell, with Valdez claiming they had no facility to isolate him. After an ABS-CBN crew had shot footage and left, Abejuela was transferred to an air-conditioned office of the commander, with Valdez saying that they did that to avoid his escaping. This was caught on video by The Basketball Show.

The Kanai family, accompanied by Kenji’s coach Beaujing Acot and PO2 Sunga, proceeded to the Quezon City fiscal’s office that afternoon. Fiscal Eligio Franco was curious why no alcohol or drug tests had been taken, and instructed Sunga to bring the suspect to the Camp Crame crime lab to have the tests taken. Instead, Sunga, who was riding in the suspect’s family car (a Nissan Patrol with government license plates), took him to East Avenue Medical Center, where only a routine physical exam was conducted.

"I questioned him about that," Acot claims. "And he said ‘Wala nang paki-alam ang fiscal dito.’ (‘The fiscal has nothing to do with this anymore.’) But when we were in front of the fiscal, he agreed to have the tests taken."

The case will now be tried in the sala of Judge Liza Sempio Dy of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 225. However, the opinions of legal experts do not give the Kanai family much hope. A case of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide only carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison.

However, because of the nature of the crime, anyone sentenced to below six years and one day of imprisonment will likely be given probation, assuming the case does not drag on for years. In other words, Abejuela will probably never be incarcerated. The family has field for a hold departure order.

In addition, unless the family can establish the potential earnings lost because of the young basketball player’s sudden death, the monetary damages could amount to only P50,000.

That’s the value of a human life.

When informed of these likelihoods, Mrs. Kanai choked and broke down in tears, shocked at how our legal system could give her son’s abrogated life so little meaning.

"My son was killed, and that’s it?" Mrs. Kanai sobbed, unable to breathe.

What is troubling is that the Kanai family is now genuinely concerned for their own safety. A neighbor told them Thursday that an unidentified man was seen roaming around their Quezon City residence, asking questions about the family. On top of that, it turns out that PO2 Sunga lives just around the corner from them. They have also received implied threats through text messages.

The media has picked up the story, and Japanese authorities have promised support to help speed the resolution of the case. Kenji was, after all, a citizen of both the Philippines and Japan. His father, Seiji, has been called back to Tokyo to apprise Japanese authorities of the progress of the case.

We hope that no more power plays emerge in the proceedings. Hearings will probably take place only every month, and with the sheer volume of cases to attend to, the judge may probably only be able to give them an hour for every hearing. Unless they are prepared for a long-drawn proceeding, they will have to relive the horror of Kenji’s death each time they go to court.

Kenji Kanai was a happy, friendly, intelligent, lively, affectionate soul who made an unforgettable impression everywhere he went. He was snatched from this world so suddenly. Now, his parent’s only hope for justice lies in the slow, grinding wheels of our judiciary, which provides no guarantees of a satisfactory result, or any result, any time soon.