Human rights alliance KARAPATAN and Hustisya, an organization of relatives of victims of extrajudicial killings and other grave human rights violations, stand together with the victims of Duterte’s drug war in urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber to confirm the charges of crimes against humanity against Rodrigo Duterte.
In his closing statement yesterday, Duterte’s lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman attempted to diminish the scale of human suffering and rights violations attendant to the bloody drug war by stating that Oplan Tokhang and its derivative operations resulted mostly in arrests instead of killings. Kaufman relied of course on official reports from the Philippine National Police that admitted to around 6,000 killed during official anti-drug operations, a figure contrasted by Kaufman to the 193,086 arrested during these operations.
These figures alone, however, already indicate the massive effect that Duterte’s drug war had on Filipinos. Add to this the fact that the 6,000 casualties admitted by the PNP reflect only about 20% of the 30,000 killed nationwide in police-sanctioned vigilante-style rub-outs, we realize the staggering impact of Duterte’s bloodbath.
Even arrests under Duterte’s drug war were replete with illegal and questionable practices like “palit-ulo” where family members or acquaintances have been arrested in lieu of the actual target just to fulfill quotas imposed by Duterte on the police and avail of the incentives provided by the Duterte regime to “top performers” in the anti-drug campaign.
The body of evidence forwarded by the prosecution point to the arbitrariness, illegality and utter cruelty of the drug war implemented by Duterte and his minions, for which they must face accountability.
For this reason, KARAPATAN and HUSTISYA firmly believe that it is imperative that the charges of murder and attempted murder constituting crimes against humanity be confirmed against Rodrigo Duterte and that these cases proceed to trial.
