Senate urged: Probe drug war killings, not Duterte arrest

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate is being urged to investigate the rampant killings of suspected users and pushers during the previous administration’s war on drugs, instead of tackling the alleged irregularities in the Philippine government’s arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

During the Senate foreign relations committee hearing on Thursday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla took issue with presiding chair Sen. Imee Marcos’ focus on the alleged lack of due process when the government whisked Duterte to The Hague to face his crimes against humanity case before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Marcos dedicated time at the hearing to show the pivot in the position of her brother, President Marcos, from non-cooperation with the ICC to helping the foreign tribunal enforce its arrest warrant against Duterte.

The Remulla brothers tried to shift the topic away from Marcos’ defense of Duterte to the fight for justice of the grieving mothers and widows in Duterte’s drug war.

The justice secretary defended the victims’ move to file a case before the ICC instead of availing themselves of legal remedies in domestic courts.

“They tried to seek justice in the Philippines, but our justice system failed them,” he said.

Victims could not build up a case because either the police refused to give them reports or could not give them a decent ballistic investigation of the killings, either by police forces or vigilantes.

“In the drug war, there is no police blotter. The prosecutors are threatened by the police. Extrajudicial killings were not investigated during this time. Even death certificates of victims claimed they died of cardiac arrest, when they had bullet holes in the head,” he said.

Some of the complainants in the ICC were victims of the dreaded Davao Death Squad, which Duterte allegedly masterminded to kill petty thieves and other suspected criminals in Davao City when he was mayor.

“Killings that happened in Mindanao did not even go through the fiscal that time,” he said. “Our justice system was problematic during that time. This is what we are trying to correct.”

For his part, Interior Secretary Remulla dared Senator Marcos to look into the drug war deaths instead of using the Senate to defend Duterte.

‘Not her duty’

House deputy minority leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro and party-list nominee Antonio Tinio strongly criticized yesterday Vice President Sara Duterte for claiming that ensuring her father’s return from the ICC is part of her official duties.

“She should stop her hypocrisy because she is only doing that to return her father to the country from the ICC to enable him to evade accountability for all his sins to the victims of extrajudicial killings through his fake drug war and red-tagging,” Castro said.

Tinio pointed out the Vice President’s selective approach to helping Filipinos detained abroad.

“Vice President Duterte claims she has ‘a duty to a fellow countryman’ in ICC detention, but where was this sense of duty for the thousands of other Filipinos detained overseas? Has she shown any concrete actions to help Mary Jane Veloso or other OFWs facing grave situations abroad?” Tinio asked.

Both said the ICC case against the former president involves serious crimes against humanity.

“The Vice President cannot hide behind her position to shield her father from accountability. Justice for the victims of the drug war must be served, and the ICC process should be allowed to proceed without political interference,” Castro said.

A ‘malicious’ spin

The Vice President’s claim that the ICC does not have at least 100 names of EJK victims during her father’s presidency and mayoralty of Davao City is a “malicious spin,” one of the lawyers representing the drug war victims said.

Responding to The STAR’s query late Thursday, ICC assistant to counsel Kristina Conti said Duterte’s claim “shows a gross misunderstanding” of the charges and international law.

“Not true that ICC does not have names of at least 100 EJK victims. More than 1,500 victims – which would include the dead, arrested and others whose rights have been violated – have communicated to the court,” she said in a post on X.

During a press conference on Thursday, Duterte questioned why ICC prosecutors were unable to cite at least 100 names of victims of her father’s war on drugs during the elder Duterte’s first appearance before the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber last week.

Conti explained that while the prosecutor may have chosen a few cases out of the thousands reported, it should not be construed as a shortage of actual victims.

“The prosecutor may have chosen only a few cases to bring to trial, but it does not mean that there were only 43 dead in the ‘war on drugs’… (which) claim otherwise shows a gross misunderstanding of the charges and how international law works or, hopefully not, a malicious spin to mislead and misinform the public,” Conti explained.

Duterte’s questions were addressed by former Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio during an interview on One News’ “Storycon” on Thursday, saying prosecutors need only establish “widespread and systematic attacks” on a civilian population.

“The trial will take a century to finish if you present all the victims and the families of the victims,” he said.

“So you choose only … the strongest cases. The court will not require you to present all the testimonies of the families of all the victims. Otherwise, they will never finish their work,” Carpio said. — Jose Rodel Clapano, Neil Jayson Servallos