DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 December) — Human rights defenders welcome the recommendation of the House Quad Comm to file charges against former President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies for crimes against humanity, calling it a step toward accountability and justice for the victims of the administration’s bloody war on drugs.
Rauf Sissay, Bayan Muna-Davao regional coordinator, told MindaNews on Saturday that the former leader should be held accountable for “his anti-poor, repressive and morally bankrupt policies.”
Sissay also urged the Lower House to investigate the alleged extrajudicial killings (EJK) committed by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which was established during the Duterte administration.
“There is still a lot of work to do in pursuit of justice,” he said.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte appears at the Senate investigation, in aid of legislation, conducted by the Blue Ribbon Committee’s Subcommittee on the “Philippine War on Illegal Drugs” on Monday, 28 October 2024. Screengrab from Senate of the Philippines Facebook livestream
Last Wednesday, the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts of the House of Representatives or Quad Comm recommended that Duterte be charged under Section 6 of the Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.
The Quad Comm also said the recommendation includes filing charges against Senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go; former Philippine National Police (PNP) chiefs Oscar David Albayalde and Debold Sinas; former police colonels Royina Garma and Edilberto Leonardo; and Hermina “Moking” Espino. Dela Rosa was PNP chief while Go was Special Assistant to the President under the Duterte administration. The two served until 2018 when they filed their certificates of candidacy for the 2019 senatorial polls.
Surigao del Norte’s 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace S. Barbers, chair of the Quad Comm, stated that “witness testimonies corroborated by evidence revealed a system that incentivized the killing of suspected drug personalities,” which was inspired by the “Davao Template.”
“The most chilling revelations pertain to the extrajudicial killings that have scarred our nation’s history. The investigations brought to light a harrowing narrative of abuse of power and institutional impunity during the Duterte administration,” he said.
Dr. Jean Lindo, chair of Gabriela Southern Mindanao, said she hoped the House Quad Comm’s recommendation was not motivated by “party politics.”
“If we use human rights lens, we start with evidence of injustices or human rights violations. So, the evidence are EJKs and the payments for the kill. So, it is up to the courts to establish that a crime happened and are linked to them. This should not be confined only to Duterte’s party and allies,” she said.
The human rights defenders said lawmakers should also investigate the deaths and disappearances of environmental advocates and human rights defenders “even if the number does not compare to drug-related killings.”
“It also matters that the victims have not been proven to have committed a crime. There was a lack of due process of law. The people in question should also not be deprived of due process of law. Of course, they have all the resources to defend themselves unlike the victims of drug killings,” she said.
Lindo added that lawmakers can start crafting laws that consider drug problems as a public “health issue” and enforce effective preventive programs, especially for the victims.
“I do pray that the investigation of drug killings should have the way to investigating political killings of HR defenders,” she said.
Grecian Asoy, a third-year law student and member of Karapatan-Southern Mindanao, those who are accused must be held accountable for all their atrocities.
“After all, they are the representatives of the people. It is their job and responsibility to forward the interests and uphold the rights of every citizen, especially the vulnerable and marginalized sectors,” she said.
She noted that “state-sponsored extrajudicial killings intensified” during the administration of Duterte, with 30,000 suspects killed during the war on drugs.
“Every person involved cannot just be reduced to data. They are real people with lives, families, aspirations, and rights. That is why it is only just to hold former president Rodrigo Duterte — and his allies who are, or were, in cohort with him — accountable so that the ends of justice may be served for all the victims of state-sponsored killings and violence,” she said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
