Arrested at an ICC order: What was Duterte’s ‘war against drugs’? | Rodrigo Duterte News

Former President of Filipin Rodrigo Duterte, who wanted the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, flew to The Hague a few hours after being arrested on Tuesday in the Manila capital.

The ICC order he saw Reuters accuses Duterte of criminal liability 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, and later as a president between 2016 and 2022.

Duterte wanted his trial to take place in the Court in the Philippines. “If I committed sin, I was prosecuted in the Philippine courts,” the police said while in custody in Manila.

Here’s what we know about Duterte’s drug war and reactions to the victims’ families.

What was Duterte’s ‘Drug War’?

Rodrigo Duterte built his reputation of the “penitent” while he was the mayor for more than 20 years, although he occasionally served. During and outside their term, more than 1,000 people were killed, including suspicion of drug users and dealers. The rights organizations accused Duterte of leading the “Death Detachment” as a mayor, a position that held until the end of the last term of 2016.

His promise to launch drug suppression throughout the country has become a feature of his successful presidential campaign in 2016.

Only after he laid the oath as president on June 30, 2016, did Duterte vow that he would solve a illegal drug problem within six months. “I don’t care about human rights, trust me,” later declared.

He also offered his “official and personal guarantee” immunity to the soldiers and the police from criminal prosecution for the deaths taken in performing their duties.

On July 1, 2016, the first day of the Duterte Presidency, police performed surgery against drugs across the country, killing at least 12 people and launching a bloody campaign for the next six years to leave about 7,000 people dead, including women and children.

By December 2016. More than 5,000 people were killed throughout the country, including 2,041 drug suspects killed in police operations, according to data collected by Al Jazeera. Other victims were killed by unknown armed people, some of whom would later turn out to be police officers.

In the first few months of Duterete, many victims were found, their remains were thrown into polluted streams, a landfill and lawn landfill.

By the end of their term of office in 2022, the advocates of human rights and the ICC prosecutor estimated that about 30,000 people were killed by police and unidentified individuals. But police only reported about 7000 deaths during police operations, omitting those killed by unknown perpetrators.

What was the public reaction to the war against drugs?

During his Presidency, Duterte enjoyed a high grade of public approval, allowing him to advocate his brutal war plan against the drug.

Immediately after he took his post in 2016, he received an 86 percent grade. And just before he left his duty in 2022, the approval rating was 73 percent, according to the research of Pulse Asia.

At every turn, Duterte’s expression of his bloody drug against drugs cheered the worshiping public. In 2017, the National Assembly of City and Provincial Legislators applauded when he said he could do nothing if the poor people were killed in his war against drugs. He also complained that the media “treated victims as saints” and “innocent people”.

In 2017, the International Report of Amnesty found that most of the people killed live under the poverty line. The report says the police also admitted that they received the money award is equivalent to $ 150 to $ 300 for any drug suspect, creating a “stimulus for murder”.

Duterte’s survivor’s war against drugs

While many victims in the drug war have fulfilled their premature death, a few survived to tell the story of police executions and abuse.

In September 2016, Francisco Santiago Jr said Al Jazeera said that he and the other man’s manila police had detained before they were brought to a darkened alley and fired several times.

Santiago’s companion, George Huggins, was killed on the spot. But Santiago stumbled upon the ground and played dead. He stood up after journalists came to the scene, and his rescue was dramatically caught on camera. His testimony to the media was later included as evidence to appeal filed before the ICC.

Roger Herrero met with a similar fate in 2018. Police fired a young father of four from Quezon Province, breaking the jaw. Police accused him of robbery and tried to escape the motorcycle. But Herre’s wife later said photojournalist Ezra Acayan that the victim does not know how to drive a motorcycle at all. Herrero also played dead to survive, and managed to get up and ask for help after the police left.

In the second case in 2017, the Human Rights Commission found a hidden cell within a police station in Manila, and 12 detainees were cramped inside. The agency announced that there was no records of their arrest, and the police did not inform their families or lawyers of their disappearance. 2021 The Government rejected an appeal against police officers, accused of illegal custody.

The children are not spared

Since June 2020, for four years in Duterte’s drug, police or Allied attackers have killed about 129 children, according to a report of the Reuters news agency, which cited the activist group.

One of the youngest who was killed was the three -year -old Myca Ulpina, who was hit during the 2019 raid, aiming at his father in Rizal Province, outside the Metro Manila. Police claimed that the child was used as a “shield” during surgery.

On the island of Negros in Central Philippines, four -year -old Barbon Althea Fhem was also killed after police shot at her and her father while on a motorcycle. Police claimed her father was a drug trader.

One of the most important cases was the murder of Kiana Delos Santos, who was shot by police in the alley near his 2017 home. According to witnesses, the 17-year-old prayed with the police to let him go, because the next day he still studied exams. Police claimed he was armed. But the CCTV incidents showed that the police withdrew unarmed and helpless teenagers just a few moments before being shot.

Just a few days later, the police were also charged with the abduction of two teenagers in the second suburb of Manila. Police said the teenagers tried to rob a taxi driver. In the next police chase, the older victim, Carl Arnaiz, was shot.

What is the reaction of the victims’ family, a group for rights?

Llore Pasco, the mother of two young men who were killed in an alleged police operation, said Al Jazeera that she was “filled with mixed emotions” after she found out Duterte’s arrest.

“I felt so nervous and scared, but also excited,” she said.

“My eyes were filled with tears. Finally, after so many years of waiting, that’s happening. That’s it.”

She said ICC is her last hope for justice, adding that she has “a little hope” that she will get justice in the Philippines.

Pasc’s sons, Cranto and Juan Carlos, disappeared from their neighborhood one day in May 2017. The care of the family turned into shock and sadness after learning only the next day on television that the two had been killed and police accused of robbery.

Pasco said her sons were killed in a police stomach. Her testimony was also included among the applications before ICC 2021.

Jane Lee, the wife of a drug victim, said the arrest of Duterte shows the inequality in the Filipin Justice System.

“Duterte is now only arrested. But our family members are done immediately,” Lee said. “I want to see Duterte in prison.”

Did the Philippines withdraw from the ICC?

Duterte said he would withdraw from the ICC just a month after ICC said in February 2018 that he would conduct a preliminary investigation into death. He withdrew from the court headquartered in The Hague in March 2019.

But according to the rules of the ICC, even if the state withdraws as a member, the court retains the jurisdiction of crimes within its administration committed during the membership period.

The ICC investigation was suspended in 2021, but reactivated two years later after the Hague-based court said he was dissatisfied with the Philippine efforts to be killed.

The current Government of President Ferdinand Marcos JR initially said that she would not work with ICC, but at the end of 2024 she said that she would consistent with any arrest warrant. Analysts say U-Turn Marcos Jr is probably because of his fall with the daughter of Rodriga Duterte, Vice-President of the State Sara Duterte.