FACT CHECK: Kian Delos Santos not considered for sainthood, photos are AI-generated

Claim: Kian Delos Santos, one of the victims of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, is being considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church. 

Rating: FALSE 

Why we fact-checked this: Several posts bearing the claim have been circulating across multiple Facebook pages. One post has already received 98,000 reactions, 11,700 comments, and 5,900 shares as of writing. 

Posted on January 11, the photo shows what appears to be a statue of Delos Santos wearing a Barong Tagalog and a scapular with light rays framing his head, bearing a resemblance to religious statues seen in churches. 

Other posts use the same photo alongside captions calling him “Saint Kian.” While several comments were mocking the late teenager and linking him to illegal drugs, others seemed to believe the claim, with one social media user writing, “Ang dali na lang pala maging santo ngayon (It’s so easy to become a saint these days).”

The facts: Delos Santos is not considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church, and no official declarations from the Vatican exist related to him.

The most recent canonization was in October 2025, when Pope Leo XIV declared seven new saints. The list does not include Delos Santos.  On January 22, 2026, the Pope approved the decrees for two people set to be beatified and four to be proclaimed Venerables; Delos Santos is not one of them. 

According to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, there are 22 causes officially recognized by the Vatican’s Discastery for the Causes of Saints as of 2025. Of these, 15 are under review by the Holy See,  including the causes of Venerables Archbishop Teofilo Camomot, Maria Beatrice Rosario Arroyo, Fr. Aloysius Schwartz, Mother Francisca del Espíritu Santo de Fuentes, Sr. Joaquina Mercedes Barceló, Bishop Alfredo Obviar, and Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo.

How one becomes a saint: The sainthood process typically starts at least five years after the death of the candidate to allow for thorough evaluation of the individual’s case. Rigorous investigations will be conducted into the life of the candidate, referred to as “servant of God.”

The candidate will be called “Venerable” if the person was found to have lived a life of “heroic virtue.” The beatification stage requires sainthood candidates to have a miracle attributed to their intercession, usually by curing illnesses. He or she will now be called “Blessed.” Another miracle needs to be verified for a candidate to reach the canonisation stage, the final step of sainthood. (READ: Faith 101: How do people become Catholic saints?)

Currently, there are only two Filipino saints: Saint Lorenzo Ruiz and Saint Pedro Calungsod, canonized in 1987 and 2012, respectively.

AI-generated: The misleading posts use AI-generated photos of Delos Santos. AI image detector Sight Engine flagged the image of Delos Santos as 77% likely AI-generated, with 71% probability of face manipulation. A scan through Undetectable AI also resulted in a similar finding that the image is likely generated using AI.

A reverse image search yields an image of a statue of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz that bears a similarity to the AI-generated photo of Delos Santos. 

The image of a priest blessing Delos Santos’ tomb is not a recent photo. It was taken in 2022 when Father Flavie Villanueva blessed Delos Santos’ tomb before the latter’s remains were exhumed for transfer to another gravesite.

War on drugs: Delos Santos was one of the victims of extrajudicial killings during the Duterte-era war on drugs. He was only 17 years old, a senior high school student, when he was shot dead on August 16, 2017, in a “shooting encounter” near their house. 

However, CCTV footage and witnesses revealed that the boy was dragged into a dark alley where he was instructed to run with a gun. He was eventually shot after complying. 

On December 22, 2025, the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed the murder conviction of three police officers involved in the killing of Delos Santos. 

The Supreme Court press release stated, “The SC found that the officers deliberately took Kian to a secluded location and placed him in a helpless position, enabling them to kill him with impunity and ensuring the execution of the crime.”

According to the Philippine National Police, over 6,000 individuals were killed in the anti-illegal drug campaign, but human rights groups peg the total number of victims to more than 30,000, including children. – Angelee Kaye Abelinde/Rappler.com 

Angelee Kaye Abelinde is a student journalist based in Naga City, and an alumna of Rappler’s Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship 2024. 

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