Since lawyer Jude Sabio filed a complaint against then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for alleged crimes against humanity in 2017, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a household name in the Philippines.
The accusation was that Duterte, and his loyal cohorts, were complicit in the “mass murder” of Filipinos under the guise of a “war on drugs”. Sabio’s complaint alleged that the strongman from Davao City was the most responsible for the deaths of 9,400 people, a count that started when Duterte first became mayor of his hometown.
For the last eight years, Filipinos anxiously awaited to see if the ICC’s investigation into Duterte and his cohorts would go anywhere. But this week, the bombshell news that many Filipinos – who were appalled by the bloody years of the Duterte regime – was nearing fruition.
Online news site Rappler first broke the news on Saturday, 8 March that Duterte’s arrest warrant from the ICC had been issued. Coincidentally, that same morning Duterte, his family and a large entourage of staff including his security detail, lawyers, and his loyal supporters from government left the Philippines for Hong Kong.
The official reasoning for Duterte’s trip – and why he brought such a large contingent with him – was that they were attending a political rally under their PDP party among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong. Though many speculated that the ex-president caught whiff of his impending arrest and made an escape to the city-state, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
In Hong Kong, an enraged Duterte told his supporters that he “never committed crimes against humanity.” Instead, he insisted that everything he did was to “bring peace and security to the lives of Filipinos.” and vowed to accept arrest if he is indeed served with a warrant.
At the time of writing, there remains no clarity on whether the ICC has really issued an arrest warrant against Duterte.
The Manila Times, the oldest extant English-language newspaper in the Philippines, has also reported that the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has issued a red notice against the former president. Yet Duterte does not appear on the Interpol website’s list of active red notices, nor have Malacañang Palace received any notification from the global crime-fighting organization.
Whether or not an arrest warrant has been issued, Rodrigo Duterte should face justice regardless. The number of deaths during his six years as president and presided over his so-called “war on drugs” was estimated to be between 12,000-20,000 by human rights watchdogs and academics.
Even if we were to take the government’s own account of the “drug war” death toll – pegged at 6,252 deaths – the numbers still paint a brutal state-sanctioned killing spree of mostly the urban poor and low-level drug peddlers. The savagery of this so-called “drug war” could also be blamed directly on Duterte himself, by his own admission he stated his policy of encouraging law enforcement actually killed drug suspects.
Facing a committee investigation at the House of Representatives in October, Duterte admitted to the existence of “death squads” he used to carry out assassinations not just as president but also when he was mayor of Davao City. He also bared instructing police to goad suspects to fight so they would have a reason to kill them.
These revelations were long held to be open secrets throughout Duterte’s six-year term as president; yet the fact that he openly admitted these before a congressional panel – under oath – still made it surprising. Not only do these admissions provide smoking gun evidence of the state-sanctioned nature of extrajudicial killings under Duterte, but the candor to which he spoke of it made it clear he showed no remorse for his actions.
Even more aggravating is the facts that unraveled about the true nature of Duterte’s so-called “drug war”. The House investigation into extrajudicial killings under his regime found that the former president himself was targeting drug users and peddlers not to attack the drug trade itself, but as a way of eliminating competition that allowed himself and his partners to profit from the very same scourge.
Speaking to the Quad-Committee report into the investigation, Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop bared that their inquiry had unveiled a “grand criminal enterprise” and that the former president was “at the center of it”.
The thousands of “drug war” deaths, mostly comprising of impoverished and marginalized Filipinos, was done to create an advantage in the drug trade for Duterte and his own partners in this criminal enterprise. He did not crack down on drug traders because he recognized the harm they were bringing to the community, but to eliminate the competition for his own gain.
Having understood the full picture of Duterte’s bloody but fake “war on drugs”, it is impossible for any human being with a conscience not to agree that he needs to be brought to justice and face trial at the International Criminal Court. A guilty verdict would add the former Filipino president to the ranks of war criminals and mass murderers, on par with the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide or with Pol Pot of Cambodia.
If indeed an arrest warrant has been issued by the ICC, the Philippine National Police (PNP) – as a member of Interpol – must act swiftly to arrest Duterte. And if the warrant is yet to be issued, those who champion freedom and human rights must demand that it gets furnished immediately.
Rodrigo Duterte must face justice for his crimes against humanity and condemning him alongside history’s worst mass murderers may be the ultimate punishment.