By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The government should cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
Karapatan made this assertion after the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Nov. 18 that that it is considering the filing of charges against Duterte for violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) under Republic Act No. 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity.
Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said that since 2018, the ICC has investigated the extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s drug war.
“Ignoring this reality would be counterproductive and will only prolong the entire process and open it to manipulation by the Duterte camp, besides prolonging the agony of the families of victims who have long been seeking justice for their loved ones,” Palabay said in a statement.
The group said that the DOJ has formed a drug war panel in 2020 under then Sec. Menardo Guevarra “but [it] barely scratched the surface on the accountability of Duterte and his henchmen, as well as the policies and root causes of extrajudicial killings in the sham drug war.”
Palabay said that if the DOJ intends to look into cases of IHL violations during the Duterte administration, she stressed that there are “numerous cases of extrajudicial killings and IHL violations which involved Duterte’s police and military in his administration’s war on dissent.”
She cited as examples the killing of at least three NDFP consultants and their three companions in 2020 and 2021. She also stressed that the Bloody Sunday Massacre in 2021 targeted 24 individuals in Batangas, Cavite and Rizal, resulting in the death of at least nine activists.
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Palabay said that the DOJ panel, where murder complaints were filed on killings of activists during the Bloody Sunday incidents in Southern Tagalog, dismissed these complaints, to the disappointment of the families of the victims. “It (DOJ) should now grant the petition for review on the dismissal.”
There are also many other cases under Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Palabay said.
For one, NDFP consultant Rogelio Posadas, who had gone missing on April 19, 2023 in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental with his aide Lynn Grace Martullinas and habal-habal drivers Renel delos Santos and Denald Mialen, was surfaced a day after as a casualty in an alleged encounter between the military and the New People’s Army. His companions remain missing.
On the night of June 14, 2023, four members of the Fausto family were killed in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental. The casualties were identified as Rolly, his wife Emelda and their two children who were both minors. The Fausto couple were members of a local peasant organization and had been repeatedly red-tagged prior to their killing.
Palabay said that the Fausto family, the victims of the Bloody Massacre and the habal-habal drivers were civilians and should not have been targeted as if they were combatants. She added that Dr. Lourdes Tangco was a protected person under IHL.
“Giron, Topacio, Magpantay, Posadas and their aides were all unarmed and/or ailing and were therefore hors de combat,” Palabay said.
She stressed that the case of the Bloody Sunday Massacre is a chance for the DOJ to redeem itself after acquitting the perpetrators. “We challenge the DOJ to get its priorities right–cooperate with the ICC with regards to Duterte’s drug war and go after the IHL violations in the numerous cases of slain or arbitrarily arrested civilians.” (RTS, DAA)
