EXPLAINER: Brutal attacks on civilians hauled Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague
COMPOSITE IMAGE. Photos from Reuters/ICC/PNA/AP/INQUIRER files
MANILA, Philippines — Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine president from 2016 to 2022 who waged a murderous anti-drug campaign that has killed 6,000 to 30,000 mostly poor Filipinos, is now in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
Last Tuesday, March 11, Duterte, who arrived from Hong Kong, was arrested on the basis of a warrant from the ICC, which found reasonable grounds to believe that Duterte is “individually responsible as an indirect co-perpetrator.”
READ: How ICC chamber decided that Duterte must face trial
The next day, Wednesday, March 12, the ICC confirmed in a statement that Duterte, who withdrew the Philippines from the Rome Statute that created the ICC in 2019, has been “surrendered” for the pre-trial, where Judges decide if there is enough evidence for the case to be tried.
READ: LIVE UPDATES: Rodrigo Duterte at The Hague
Killing as ‘crime against humanity’
Duterte, who once dared the ICC to investigate him over his war on drugs, is charged with murder as a crime against humanity that is said to have been committed in the Philippines between Nov. 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019.
GRAPHIC: Daniella Marie Agacer/INQUIRER.net
Article 7 of the Rome Statute provides that crimes against humanity “are serious violations committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.”
READ: Duterte says he is ‘responsible’ as ICC takes him into custody
The 15 forms of crimes against humanity listed in the Rome Statute include offenses such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement – specifically of women and children, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.
Murder as a crime against humanity has three elements:
- The perpetrator killed one or more persons.
- The conduct was committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.
- The perpetrator knew that the conduct was part of or intended the conduct to be part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
Brutal attack on civilians
The ICC explained that “attack directed against a civilian population” is understood to mean a course of conduct involving the commission of acts against any civilian population, based on a State or organizational policy to commit such an attack.
Assessing the material given by the Prosecution, the ICC found that there was an attack on civilians pursuant to an organizational policy while Duterte was the head of the Davao Death Squad, and to a State policy while he was president of the Philippines.
READ: ICC EXPLAINER: Fine points in the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte
“Moreover, there are reasonable grounds to believe that this attack was both widespread and systematic: the alleged attack took place over a period of several years and resulted in thousands of deaths,” the ICC said.
GRAPHIC: Daniella Marie Agacer/INQUIRER.net
As Duterte waged in 2016 a war against drugs, thousands of Filipinos, some of them children as young as three years old, were killed by the police or vigilantes, but only three cases have resulted in convictions.
RELATED STORY: The fall of ‘The Punisher’: Rodrigo Duterte’s path to the ICC
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency listed 6,252 dead in anti-drug police operations from 2016 to 2022. But a 2017 year end report attributed to the Office of the President (OP) listed over 20,000 dead in the first 17 months of Duterte’s presidency.
Based on data shared by lawyer Jose “Chel” Diokno with the House Committee on Human Rights last year, out of the 20,322 deaths listed as “accomplishment” by the OP report, 3,967 were killed in police operations and 16,355 in vigilante-style killings.
No certainty yet
But while Duterte, who has repeatedly threatened to “kill” individuals involved in drugs, is now in the custody of ICC, and could be the first Asian former head of State to be tried by the ICC, the process is still long and winding.
READ: EXPLAINER: What’s next after arrest of Rodrigo Duterte?
Should the ICC decide to confirm the charges, which is the most critical part of the pre-trial, against Duterte, the Prosecution, before three trial Judges, has to prove beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused.
GRAPHIC: Daniella Marie Agacer/INQUIRER.net
ICC trials, however, usually take eight years, with some extending to 10 years or more.
READ: Marcos: Arrest of Duterte not ‘political persecution’
Based on data from the ICC, there are 22 cases of crimes against humanity filed before it, including the cases of Sudan’s former President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir and Minister of State for the Interior Ahmad Muhammad Harun.
Out of the 22, only four have been convicted, while five are still at large, like Al Bashir and Harun, who are charged not only with crimes against humanity but with war crimes that are said to have been committed between 2003 and 2008 in Darfur, Sudan.
RELATED STORY: Day of reckoning comes for Duterte
Two cases are now awaiting a decision, while most have been terminated at pre-trial. There are three acquittals, the ICC said. These are the cases of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui of Congo, and Charles Blé Goudé of Côte d’Ivoire.
A warrant of arrest was likewise issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes in relation to the invasion of Ukraine, but no arrest has been made yet.
