Finally facing a congressional investigation, former president Rodrigo Duterte delivered a mouthful yesterday, refusing to leave the Senate even after spending eight hours before the Blue Ribbon subcommittee.
Duterte’s main message was that he was taking full legal and moral responsibility for the policy pursued during his presidency in dealing with the illegal drug scourge, which led to the killing of over 6,000 drug suspects in law enforcement operations. Human rights groups say the actual number of fatalities, including those killed apparently by vigilantes, could reach around 20,000.
The former president was unapologetic, saying, “I did what I had to do… I did it for my country.” He shielded the Philippine National Police from blame, even when he admitted having a “death squad” that he said was composed of “gangsters” and wealthy civilians who wanted to kill criminals when he was mayor of Davao City. Pressed to identify the death squad members, he said at age 73, his memory fails him. “Thousands” were killed in Davao at the time, he said, but they were criminals.
Duterte, however, along with his aide-turned-senator Bong Go, denied maintaining a cash reward system for police officers who killed drug suspects. Duterte dismissed as a “liar” the source of this story, former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Royina Garma, a retired police colonel.
Former senator Leila de Lima, who attended the Blue Ribbon hearing, had investigated Duterte over the Davao Death Squad when she was chair of the Commission on Human Rights and later the secretary of justice. Asked by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada why she did not press criminal charges against Duterte in her previous official capacities, she said witnesses were fearful to come out and there was “no real evidence yet at my disposal.”
Duterte’s testimony yesterday, as noted by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, could bolster criminal charges against him related to his bloody war on drugs. Having lost his presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, Duterte can now be indicted and tried.
The Marcos administration has maintained that the International Criminal Court, which is investigating Duterte and several of his former officials for possible murder as a crime against humanity, need not exercise jurisdiction over the Philippines because the pillars of justice in the country are working. The Marcos administration can prove this by pursuing cases in court against Duterte and his former officials. It can be done parallel to the ICC probe, and it will be a test of the strength of the Philippine criminal justice system.