Luke Espiritu: Justice for Rodrigo Duterte actions must reach completion
Labor leader Luke Espiritu. PHOTO FROM OFFICIAL FB PAGE
MANILA, Philippines — Labor leader and Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) senatorial candidate Luke Espiritu said justice for the actions of former President Rodrigo Duterte must reach its completion and not be “half-baked.”
Duterte was arrested by authorities on Tuesday after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant against him for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
“Ang parusa ay dapat kompleto, hindi half-baked… Justice, hindi political expedience, justice dapat ang mananaig sa pagpapakulong at pagpo-prosecute kay Duterte,” Espiritu said in an interview on Tuesday.
(The punishment should be complete, not half-baked… Justice, not political expedience, should prevail in jailing and prosecuting Duterte.)
LIVE UPDATES: Duterte arrested by PNP after ICC issues warrant
Espiritu recalled the system that Duterte allegedly implemented to reward police officers for killing drug suspects.
The existence of a rewards system was backed by the testimony of former police colonel Royina Garma at the House of Representatives’ quad panel last October investigating Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.
READ: Leonardo: Rewards system existed; validates Garma’s testimony
“What we have created is an entire infrastructure for murder and killing. That is what we are left with. That is what you (addressing Duterte) have developed. You have developed a murderous society that even murder is being applauded in our country,” Espiritu said.
“We have become a nation of psychopaths and criminal-minded people. Ganoon ang ginawa ni Duterte. He really destroyed our values and our nation na dapat siya maparusahan. Dapat siya ay maaresto,” he added.
(We have become a nation of psychopaths and criminal-minded people. That’s what Duterte did. He really destroyed our values and our nation so much that he needs to be punished. His arrest is just.)
The Human Rights Watch estimates that around 12,000 people were killed during Duterte’s drug war.
