MANILA (UCAN): Human rights activists and family members of victims of the Philippines’ drug war have welcomed a request from the International Criminal Court [ICC] seeking the government’s help in conducting a probe against former president, Rodrigo Duterte.
Their responses came after two state officials revealed that the ICC has sought government assistance to conduct a preliminary investigation against Duterte, whose deadly anti-drug campaign left thousands dead between 2016 and 2022.
Rights groups say as many as 20,000 people were victims of extrajudicial killings during the drug war.
Family members of the victims say they expect the government will cooperate with the ICC to win justice for their loved ones.
“I am hoping that with the engagement of ICC, the victims of the drug war, especially our relatives will be given justice,” the niece of one male victim from a town in the central Philippines said speaking condition of anonymity.
She said her uncle was shot and killed after being accused of being a drug dealer adding that their family did not pursue a criminal case over the killing due to lack of money and fear of a backlash.
I am hoping that with the engagement of ICC, the victims of the drug war, especially our relatives will be given justice
“This is the fate of the poor people who are simply killed, even if they don’t deserve to be killed,” she said.
On July 29, Menardo Guevarra, head of the Office of the Solicitor-General, told local media that the ICC had made the request to the government. The next day, former senator, Antonio Trillanes IV, also said the same while speaking to journalists in the capital Manila.
Trillanes said that an incumbent lawmaker and four top police officials have been placed on the “Blue Notice” list of the International Criminal Police Organisation [Interpol] upon the request of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC.
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He said that the people placed on the “Blue Notice” were a senator, Ronaldo Dela Rosa; former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, General Oscar Albayalde, former PNP chief intelligence officer Brigadier General Eleazar Matta; former PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief, Major General Romeo Caramat Jr., and National Police Commission commissioner, Edilberto Leonardo.
“It looks like the blue notice is just part of the ICC’s process. While I think it’s too early to say that this will produce an outcome favorable to the thousands of victims of ‘drug war’ killings, it does send a message to abusive law enforcers: there will be a time of reckoning,” Carlos Conde, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.
The ICC seems serious in pursuing its investigation. The Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration should fully cooperate with the court’s investigation
Carlos Conde
“The ICC seems serious in pursuing its investigation. The Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration should fully cooperate with the court’s investigation,” Conde added.
On its website, Interpol said that a Blue Notice means “to collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation.”
Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of rights group, Karapatan, said the senator and police officials are duly placed under a Blue Notice as they “have always justified the conduct of the Duterte administration’s drug war and made claims about the lack of human rights violations while he and the PNP implemented the bloody campaign, despite the bloody trail of extrajudicial killings during their tenure.”
Palabay said, “Karapatan demands that Dela Rosa and all persons of authority who signed off, issued orders or did not do anything to stop the implementation of these orders and the killings be fully held accountable — in domestic and international accountability mechanisms.”
Justice secretary, Jesus Remulla, earlier said the government cannot stop Interpol in case it issues an arrest warrant against Duterte, and others listed by the ICC.
“We are members of Interpol, and we do not block any moves by Interpol unless a policy contradicts our international commitments. The future issue at hand now is that if a warrant of arrest is issued, it’s Interpol’s job to serve it. And we have a duty to Interpol,” Remulla told reporters in Manila on August 1.
