Stop victim mentality, Kitty Duterte told

MANILA, Philippines —  Kitty Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, should stop playing the victim card after the arrest and turnover on Tuesday of her father to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, according to youth group Kabataan.

“Stop this pa-victim behavior. Your family is not the victim. Your father is the victimizer,” said Renee Louise Co, Kabataan party-list’s first nominee in the midterm elections.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Duterte for the alleged crime against humanity of murder stemming from his bloody war on drugs.

“In the eyes of Filipinos, Duterte will always be the dictator, murderer and victimizer, never the victim. Kitty Duterte’s social media activity is ironic and insulting to a lot of youth who lived through Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody regime,” Co said.

“You and your family are playing victims despite your complicity and deafening silence over your father’s war on drugs that killed 30,000 Filipinos, many of them youths,” she maintained.

Christina Padual, 29, was gunned down while eating a late dinner of sardines, rice and watermelon, Co recalled.

Kian de los Santos, 17, begged for his life before getting shot by the police, Co said.

Duterte’s former police chief Sen. Ronald dela Rosa said “sh*t happens” after Myca Ulpina, 3, was shot dead during a police operation, Co noted.

De Lima vindicated

Sen. Leila de Lima said Duterte’s arrest is part of her vindication.

“I was jailed for almost seven years because I fought against it, the killings under their bloody war on drugs,” she told “Storycon” on One News on Tuesday.

Issuance of an arrest warrant from a Philippine court is unnecessary to justify Duterte’s arrest by the ICC, she noted.

“I just feel so vindicated that finally, justice is now rolling and that is the true hope of victims of extrajudicial killings and their families,” she said.

The current government, she said, cannot refuse cooperation with the ICC even if the Duterte administration withdrew from the Rome Statute.

Article 127 of the Rome Statute, she said, does not absolve or excuse states from cooperating.

“Would custody stay with the Philippines as the custodial state? Because if that is the case, he should first be placed in a facility while waiting for other developments. For example, the arrest warrant has to be returned (to a local court or the ICC),” she noted.

Although there is almost a similarity with extradition cases, De Lima said the ICC’s jurisdiction is different.

“The ICC did not ask for extradition. We are not sure yet what the Interpol asked of Philippine authorities, although there are cases wherein this is not treated as extradition,” she added.

Justice for victims

Duterte’s arrest and turnover to the ICC were not about him, but about justice for thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings, according to two leaders of the House quad committee.

“Now that justice is finally within reach, Duterte and his allies want to rewrite the narrative, framing this as political persecution. But the real persecution happened in our streets, in our alleys, in our communities – where the powerless were gunned down in cold blood,” Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong and Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said in a joint statement.

Carl Angelo Arnaiz, 19, went missing for 10 days in 2017, they recalled.

Arnaiz’s body was found in a morgue in Caloocan, riddled with gunshot wounds, with police claiming he shot at officers while forensic evidence showed he had been tortured, handcuffed and shot while on his knees, they noted.

Reynaldo de Guzman, 14, was found lifeless in a creek in Gapan, Nueva Ecija in 2017, stabbed multiple times, the lawmakers said.

Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman on Tuesday said the quad comm’s probe into Duterte’s bloody drug war “boosted” the charges against Duterte before the ICC for crimes against humanity.

Rights group Karapatan is crediting Duterte’s arrest to drug war victims’ families’ persistence to achieve justice and accountability.

“President Marcos downplays the tenacity and courage of the drug war victims’ families who gave testimonies and provided evidence to the ICC at great risk to their safety,” Karapatan deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule said.

Marcos, they said, is refusing to rejoin the ICC as he is liable for rampant violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, fearing that “he may someday end up like Duterte.” –  Artemio Dumlao, Christine Boton, Silvia Massa, Delon Porcalla