The former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, was transported by The Hague after being arrested in the capital Manila on Tuesday.
The ICC mandate seen by Reuters accuses of a criminal responsibility for the murder of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019 as part of his war against drugs as mayor of the southern city of Davao and later as president between 2016 and 2022.
Duterte wanted her trial to take place in a court in the Philippines. “If I got involved, continue the Filipino courts,” he told the police in detention in Manila.
Here is what we know about the war of Duterte against drugs and the reactions of the families of the victims.
What was Duterte’s “war against drugs”?
Rodrigo Duterte built his reputation as “The Punisher” while he was the mayor of Davao for more than 20 years, although he was used intermittently. During his current mandate, more than 1,000 people were killed, including drug consumers and alleged dealers. The rights organizations have accused Duterte of having managed a “death team” as mayor, a position he held until his last mandate ends in 2016.
His commitment to launching a national repression against drug gangs has become the characteristic of his successful presidential campaign in 2016.
Just after having oath as president on June 30, 2016, Duterte promised to solve the illegal drug problem of the country in the six months. “I don’t care about human rights, believe me”, it later declared.
He also offered soldiers and police his “official and personal guarantee” of immunity against the death prosecution undertaken in the exercise of their functions.
On July 1, 2016, the first full day of the presidency of Duterte, the police carried out anti-drug operations across the country, killing at least 12 people and inaugurating a bloody campaign for the next six years that would leave some 7,000 dead, including women and children.
In December 2016, more than 5,000 people were killed across the country, including 2,041 drug suspects killed in police operations, according to data collected by Al Jazeera. The other victims were killed by unknown armed men, some of whom would later prove to be police.
During the first months in the power of Duterte, many victims were found linked, their remains poured into polluted streams, discharge sites and meadows.
At the end of his mandate in 2022, human rights defenders and the CPI prosecutor estimated that some 30,000 people were killed by police and unidentified persons. But the police only reported 7,000 deaths during police operations, omitting people killed by unknown authors.
What was the public’s reaction to the war against drugs?
Throughout his presidency, Duterte benefited from a rating of the public approval of the public, allowing him to put pressure for his brutal anti-drug war program.
Right after taking office in 2016, he obtained an approval rating of 86%. And just before leaving office in 2022, his approval rating was 73%, according to a Pulse Asia survey.
At each turn, Duterte’s declaration on her bloody war against drugs was applauded by a worship audience. In 2017, a National Assembly of City and Provinces legislators applauded when he said that there was nothing that he could do if the poor were killed in his war against drugs. He also complained that the media “treated victims as saints” and “innocent”.
An Amnesty International report in 2017 revealed that most people killed lived below the poverty line. The report indicates that the police also admitted to having received a reward money equivalent to $ 150 to $ 300 for each drug suspect they killed, creating an “incentive to kill”.
Surviving the war of duterte against drugs
While many victims of the drug war have met their premature death, some have survived to tell the story of police and abuse executions.
In September 2016, Francisco Santiago Jr told Al Jazeera that he and another man had been detained by Manila police, before being brought to a dark alley and pulled several times.
Santiago’s companion, George Huggins, was killed on the spot. But Santiago fell on the ground and played dead. He got up after the journalists came to the scene and his rescue was radically taken in front of the camera. His testimony to the media was later included as proof in the complaint filed before the ICC.
Roger Herrero concluded a similar fate in 2018. The young father of four children in Quezon province was shot by the police at close range, breaking his jaw. He was accused by flight police and trying to flee from a motorcycle. But Herrero’s wife later said that the photojournalist Ezra Acayan that the victim did not even know how to travel a motorcycle. Herrero also played dead to survive and managed to get up and ask for help after the police depart.
In another case in 2017, the Human Rights Committee found a hidden cell inside a police station in Manila with 12 detainees inside. The agency said there was no trace of their arrest and that the police had not informed their families or the lawyers of their disappearance. In 2021, the government rejected the complaint against the police, accused of illegal detention.
Children are not spared
In June 2020, four years after the Duterte’s drug war, around 129 children were killed by police or allied attackers, according to a report by the Reuters news agency who quoted a group of activists.
One of the youngest to have been killed was Myca Ulpina, three years old, who was touched during a raid in 2019 to target his father in the province of Rizal just outside Metro Manila. Police said the child was used as a “shield” during the operation.
On the island of Negros, in the center of the Philippines, Althea Fhem Barbon, four, was also killed after the police shot her and her father when they were on a motorcycle. Police said his father was a drug trafficker.
One of the most prominent cases was the murder of Kian Delos Santos, who was killed by the police in an alley near his house in 2017. According to witnesses, the 17 -year -old had pleaded with the police to let him go, because he was still studying for his exams the next day. Police said he was armed. But video surveillance images of the incident have shown that the police dragging the unarmed and defenseless teenager for a few moments before being shot.
A few days later, the police were also accused of having removed two teenagers from another suburbs of Manila. Police said the teenagers had tried to steal a taxi driver. In the pursuit of the police who followed, the eldest victim, Carl Arnaiz, was shot.
What is the reaction of the families of the victims, of the rights defense groups?
Llore Pasco, the mother of two young men who were killed in an alleged police operation, told Al Jazeera that she was “filled with mixed emotions” after learning the arrest of Duterte.
“I felt so nervous and frightened, but also excited,” she said.
“My eyes were also filled with tears. Finally, after so many years of waiting, it happens. That’s it. “”
She said that the ICC is her last hope of justice, adding that she had “little or no hope” of obtaining justice in the Philippines.
The sons of Pasco, Crisanto and Juan Carlos, disappeared one day in May 2017. The family’s concern turned into shock and sorrow after learning that television the next day that the two were killed, accused by the flight police.
Pasco said his sons had been killed in police friction. His testimony was also included among the deposits before the ICC in 2021.
Jane Lee, wife of a victim of the drug war, said that Duterte’s arrest shows the inequality of the Philippines justice system.
“Duterte is only arrested now. But our family members were executed right away, “said Lee. “I want to see Duterte in prison.”
Have the Philippines withdrew from the ICC?
Duterte said he would withdraw from the ICC barely a month after the ICC said in February 2018 that she would conduct a preliminary investigation into deaths. He withdrew from the tribunal based in The Hague in March 2019.
But under the rules of the ICC, even if a state withdraws as a member, the court retains its jurisdiction over crimes within its administration which are committed during the membership period.
The ICC investigation was suspended in 2021 but reactivated two years later after the Hague -based court said that he was not satisfied with the Philippine efforts to do justice.
The current government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr initially declared that he would not cooperate with the ICC, but said at the end of 2024 that he would comply with any arrest warrant. Analysts claim that Marcos Jr’s joint tour is probably due to his benefits with the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, the vice-president of the country Sara Duterte.
