Former senator Leila de Lima on Monday said ex-President Rodrigo Duterte is behind the killings during the war on drugs during his term.
“There is no doubt in my mind that former President Duterte is the mastermind, instigator and inducer of drug war killings,” de Lima said during the House Committee on Human Rights hearing on drug war killings during the administration of Duterte.
“He must be prosecuted and convicted and he should spend the rest of his life in prison,” said de Lima, who was charged with three drug-related cases during the Duterte administration and was jailed for seven years before she was cleared by the courts of all of the drug charges.
GMA News Online contacted Duterte’s camp, particularly former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, to get the former President’s comment but has yet to receive a reply.
De Lima and former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde showed up as resource persons during the committee hearing on Monday.
During Duterte’s term, Albayalde served as the PNP chief from April 2018 to October 2019 and also as regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office from July 2016 to April 2018.
House Committee on Human Rights Chairperson Bienvenido Abante Jr, for his part, said the presence of personalities from two sides of the aisles shows that the committee is bent on being fair and just.
“Our aim has always been to ensure transparency, accountability and protection of human rights. We want to hear all sides, because the integrity of this inquiry depends on us obtaining all facts and all perspectives to this,” Abante said.
Abante also chided Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a former PNP chief during the Duterte administration, for the latter’s previous comment that drug war killings are collateral damage.
“The killing of so many people is not just collateral damage. It could have been prevented,” Abante said.
Duterte and other top officials of the Duterte administration are already being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with alleged commission of crimes against humanity for systematic drug war deaths in police operations during his tenure.
These deaths reached around 6,000 based on police records, but human rights groups contend that the deaths reached as much as 30,000, including vigilante killings, due to Duterte’s policy.
The former Chief Executive, however, has insisted that the Philippines is not under ICC jurisdiction due to Manila’s unilateral withdrawal from the Rome Statute in March 2019.
One year and six months after this pullout, the ICC pre-trial chamber found reasonable basis to probe the Philippine government for alleged crimes against humanity due to systematic killing of citizens in pursuit of a state policy of anti-drug war.
Since then, the ICC Appeals Chamber also denied the Philippine government’s appeal to stop the ICC probe on the drug war because the Philippines failed to prove to the ICC that a legitimate investigation on drug war killings and prosecution of the perpetrators are being done by Philippine authorities. —KG, GMA Integrated News
