DRUG WAR | Drug war victims’ families find ‘vindication’ as ICC prosecutor seeks formal inquiry

June 15, 2021 , 06:31 PM

(June 15, 2021) – The victims’ families in President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal and bloody war on drugs found “vindication” after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor asked judges to open a formal inquiry in the mass killings, a lawyers’ group said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) praised Fatou Bensouda for taking a huge step forward in bringing to justice Duterte’s drug-related killings since 2016 when he rose to power.

“We feel vindicated that the prosecutor has recognized the unjust killing of thousands of victims of Duterte’s ‘war on drugs,'” the NUPL said, adding the victims’ families are willing to testify when the trial begins.

“Survivors and families of the victims have been hungry for any measure of justice and mercy, and the prosecutor’s recognition that the killings as official state policy is an empathetic assurance that redress is available, if not sooner, then later.”

NUPL issued the statement together with the victims’ families who belong to a group called Rise Up for Life and For Rights. On Monday, the group wrote to Bensouda and her successor, Karim Khan, urging them to begin an investigation into the drug war that has killed more than 7,000.

Human rights groups said the real count could be as high as 30,000

The ICC prosecutor said the number of people killed from July 2016 to March 2019, the period covered by the formal inquiry, was from 12,000 to 30,000 people.

The ICC lost jurisdiction over the Philippines after March 2019 when the country withdrew from the Rome statute.

Bensouda, who has completed her term as ICC prosecutor, has requested the international tribunal’s pre-trial chamber to approve the investigation into the drug war after wrapping up a three-year preliminary examination into the issue.

NUPL and Rise Up were among the numerous rights groups that appealed to the ICC to prosecute Duterte and officials in his government for crimes against humanity for thousands of people killed in the drug war.

Bensouda also wanted to include the killings in Davao City from 2011 to 2016 because the killings involved the same actors.

Two of Duterte’s former national police chiefs— Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Oscar Albayalde—are included in the investigation as they carried out police operations that led to the killings. Dela Rosa was elected to the Senate in 2019, a year after he retired.

The ICC prosecutor said the president has not only encouraged the state security forces to carry out the killing of street-level drug peddlers and users but has protected law enforcers who were accused of executing a local official inside his detention cell after he was arrested for drug trade activities.

There was a similar pattern of killings from the time Duterte was mayor in a southern city until he was elected president in 2016.

The prosecutor said the killings of petty drug peddlers and users during sting operations or “Oplan Tokhang” were justified because they were in self-defense.

Thousands of suspected drug users and traders were also killed by vigilantes, some of whom were really police officers and people hired by the police to kill drug suspects.

(Beatrice Puente/MM)

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