By Diego Morra
Unlamented ex-president Rodrigo Duterte had long ridiculed the International Criminal Court (ICC) and even hurled racist slurs on former ICC Prosecutor Fathou Bensouda before insulting current Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan KC, who took office on June 16, 2021, and mocking him for not hurrying up and arresting him. His macabre yarn is that Khan should arrest him quickly before death beats him.
Duterte, an ever-arrogant politician whom American officials tagged as addicted to punching above his weight, also insulted former US President Barack Obama and at one time berated Donald Trump for seeking a meeting with him over the matter of aid. The onion-skinned Trump then snapped back at Duterte’s emissary: Good, we will save money. He had cursed the European Union (EU), the Pope, wanted to have sex with the remains of a murdered Australian missionary and publicly harassed a female politician, intimating he wanted more intimacy with her. Using his puerile legal imagination, Duterte unilaterally scrapped the country’s ratification of the Rome Statute, withdrawing from the ICC treaty in the mistaken belief he could not be charged by the ICC. Duterte’s basic error was to think that he could invoke the withdrawal to slither away from criminal charges like crimes against humanity.
For a lawyer who never won a substantial case as Davao City prosecutor, which has been used by local lawyers as an argument against his legal prowess, Duterte also failed to see that his crimes spanned 2011 to his presidency and beyond, when the Philippines was still covered by the ICC. The Philippine withdrawal from the Statute became official one year after it was submitted. He’s committed to being charged and his goose is cooked all because of his bad legal theory. The entire mountain of evidence against Duterte was amassed from 2011 until the case was filed. In fact, the murder of Jun Pala is included in the case as no justice was expected by the victim’s family since the Dutertes controlled Davao City in 2003.
Duterte also mocked the relatives of the 3,000 victims of the Duterte Death Squad (DDS) in Davao City, harassed the priests and ministers who assisted the grieving kin and sought the help of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) led by Chairperson Leila de Lima, who promptly chastised Duterte publicly for not investigating the murders of street children, the killings of suspected snatchers and petty drug pushers as well the slayings of internet shop customers who were not DDS targets. The late Redemptorist Fr. Amado Picardal wrote a detailed report on the DDS killings from 1998 to 2015 and submitted it on April 2016, forming an incontrovertible part of the evidence confirmed by the CHR and the Human Rights Watch (HRW.) Picardal was hounded by gunmen because of his work and his congregation reassigned him. He was beside himself with glee as the ICC announced an investigation into Duterte for crimes against humanity in 2021.
Given the mass of corroborated evidence from Picardal and the testimonies of former Duterte hitmen, retired SPO4 Arthur Lascanas and Edgar Matobato, the relatives of the estimated 30,000 victims of Duterte’s alleged “war on drugs,” aided by the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), Karapatan human rights alliance, Rise Up coordinator Deaconess Rubylin Litao and Bayan Muna assiduously compiled all the evidence about the murderous rampage of the police, their assets and the imported DDS operators in Metro Manila and beyond. “Walang katumbas ang saya ang naramdaman ko ngayon, kasabay ng pagluha dahil sa saya sa pag aresto kay Duterte,” said Dahlia Cuartero, mother of a Duterte victim. ‘‘Wala kang karapatan na kumuha ng buhay ng iba. Diyos lang lang may karapatan. Kaya sa ginawa mo, maniningil ang taumbayan lalo na kaming mga pamilya ng mga naging biktima. Kaya sisingilin ka na ng taumbayan!” the Rise Up families in Cebu declared in their group chat. They demanded that Duterte’s cohorts and enablers like Sens. Bato de la Rosa, Bong Go and Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio be indicted, tried and convicted as well for committing crimes against humanity.
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) secretary general and Makabayan senatorial candidate Jerome Adonis said Duterte should have been imprisoned long ago for his long list of crimes against workers and their unions. He added that 68 workers and union leaders were murdered under Duterte like Dandy Miguel and Manny Asuncion while others were abducted and never to be seen again, all because they fought for better wages, decent jobs and respect for labor rights. Thousands were also killed under Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 that created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and Memo Circular No. 32 that unleashed military and police attacks on rural communities.
For his part, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) national chairperson and Makabayan senatorial candidate Danilo Ramos said “Duterte must face the consequences of his crimes. The thousands of victims of his bloody drug war and anti-insurgency campaign, including urban poor, farmers and indigenous peoples, deserve justice. Marcos Jr.’s government should fully cooperate with the ICC and ensure that Duterte is made to answer for his atrocities.” He urged the Marcos Jr. administration to file cases against Duterte for the human rights violations committed by his regime that are not included in the ICC complaints.
“Justice cannot be selective. Duterte’s crimes extend beyond the drug war; his policies targeted activists, human rights defenders, and peasant communities under counter-insurgency campaigns like Oplan Kapanatagan and the NTF-ELCAC. His direct orders to ‘kill, kill, kill’ resulted in mass killings, forced evacuations, and state-perpetrated violence. Dapat managot at panagutin si Duterte,” the KMP leader said. KMP reiterated its demand for justice and accountability, emphasizing that the ICC’s actions are crucial in breaking the cycle of impunity in the Philippines. The peasant organization vowed to join protests and campaigns to press the Marcos government to comply with the ICC’s legal processes and arrest Duterte. “The victims and their families have waited long enough. Duterte must answer for his crimes against humanity,” Ramos concluded. #
