Calls mount on EJK accountability

Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte —Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau

MANILA, Philippines — Calls mounted on Monday for the government to make former President Rodrigo Duterte accountable after he testified at a Senate inquiry that he was responsible for the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during his administration’s brutal campaign against illegal drugs from 2016 to 2022.

Former Sen. Leila de Lima, who sat just a seat away from Duterte at the hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee probing the drug war, said his admission about the existence of death squads underpinned the suspicions of human rights advocates that he was behind the execution of criminals and suspected criminals in Davao as longtime mayor.

READ: Duterte allowed to speak first at Senate drug war probe

Known as the most vocal critic of Duterte’s drug war, De Lima reiterated that her indictment for drug trading, for which she spent seven years in detention at Camp Crame before she was acquitted and freed last June, was meant to silence her.

“Inducing, encouraging, and prodding people to kill, directly or indirectly, are not part of the duty of an executive official, whether mayor or president,” De Lima pointed out.

ICC cooperation

“You all heard from the horse’s mouth that there are indeed death squads,” De Lima emphasized.

“This man, the former mayor of Davao City and the former president of the Republic of the Philippines, for so long has evaded justice and accountability for the thousands of those killed in the name of the so-called war on drugs,” she lamented.

At the Lower House, Assistant Majority Leader Francisco Paolo Ortega V also said the International Criminal Court (ICC) could prove a crucial avenue for justice should local avenues fail, while Cagayan de Oro Rep. Lordan Suan urged the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman to immediately conduct a probe based on Duterte’s statements in the Senate hearing.

“The former President has publicly accepted responsibility for these deaths. If we truly stand by our principles of justice and the rule of law, then Mr. Duterte must be held accountable. He must go to jail for these EJKs,” Deputy Majority Leader Jude Acidre said in a statement.

The admission by Duterte about his order for police personnel to encourage alleged drug users to fight back so they could be killed is also a form of encouraging killings, a confession that may even bolster the case against him at the ICC, said human rights lawyer and former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, a cocounsel for the families of the drug war victims.

“This means that he (Duterte) knows about the attacks and he wants the attacks to continue. So both of them (encouragement for victims to fight and the reward system) are actually very, very credible evidence to really pin him down in the end that not only did he order it, but funded the killings,” Colmenares told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

“For me, this is where his dilemma will start in the ICC, at least for crimes against humanity,” he added.

“This is really damaging for him. He is very talkative and for me, if that’s what he said, then this would be very damning for him, and I really hope that the senators will ask him along that line,” he added.

Assistant Majority Leader Mikaela Angela Suansing of Nueva Ecija agreed.

“The former President’s own words must be met with a serious response. For too long, victims of EJKs have waited for answer,” she said.

Self-serving statements

Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas, for her part, criticized Senators Ronald dela Rosa and Christopher Go for their “shameless display of partisan defense and self-serving statements” and called on the Senate leadership to prevent main actors in the drug war, particularly the two senators, from “manipulating” the narrative.

Dela Rosa was the national police chief and considered the main architect of Duterte’s war on drugs, while Go was the former President’s special assistant.

Colmenares said the Senate leadership should take the lead in prohibiting the two senators, both of whom had admitted to being staunch supporters of Duterte, to take part in the Senate hearing. —with reports from Dexter Cabalza, Jane Bautista, and Melvin Gascon