The Philippine justice system failed in the cases of alleged extrajudicial killings in the Duterte administration’s war on drugs and victims’ families had to go to the International Criminal Court to seek justice, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla said on Thursday.
In a Senate hearing on the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, Remulla said the victims’ loved ones had nowhere to run to in the country “for the longest time.”
“The cases that we are speaking about were filed by their families in the ICC because they could not get justice in the country. I think that’s one thing that nobody wants to acknowledge—that there was a failure of our justice system for a long time,” Remulla said.
“They had to file their cases in the ICC to get any attention at all from anybody who cared because for the longest time, itong mga biktima po, ‘yung mga namatayan, mga pamilya nilang namatay o kaya’y napaslang sa drug war, ay wala nang mapuntahan kaya do’n sila pumunta sa ICC,” he added.
(For the longest time, the families of the victims who died had nowhere to go, so they went to the ICC.)
GMA News Online is getting comments from justice and police officials from the Duterte administration and will publish them as soon as they are available.
On questioning by Senator Imee Marcos, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Remulla answered in the affirmative when asked about the failure of the justice system – a situation that makes the involvement of the International Criminal Court necessary.
“Opo, nu’ng panahon na ‘yon,” Remulla said.
“Nagkaro’n tayo ng problema nung panahon na yun na hindi ho talaga maimbestigahan nang maayos kasi pati ho ang piskal tinatakot po nung pulis nung panahon na yun, eh,” he added.
(Yes, there was at that time. We had a problem at the time because investigations couldn’t be done properly because the police intimidated the prosecutors.)
The Senate panel held the hearing to look into the circumstances of the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte who is facing charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the killings under his administration’s war on drugs.
Duterte on March 11 was arrested on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court and he has since been detained at The Hague Penitentiary.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has said that the Philippine government didn’t help the ICC because the country left the tribunal in 2019. The government, however, had to honor commitments with Interpol to serve the ICC-issued warrant of arrest.
“Mas maayos ngayon sapagkat sinisugurado namin na ang piskal at ang pulis ay magkasama na mag-imbestiga ng mga krimen. Hindi na ho katulad ng dati,” Remulla said as regards the justice system now.
(The situation is better now because we make sure the prosecutors and the police are aligned in investigating crime. It’s no longer as before.)
Imee Marcos asked why cases were not filed in the country now if the situation has gotten better.
Remulla said the government had no control over the families who sought help from the ICC.
The deaths reached around 6,000 based on police records, but human rights groups contend that the deaths were as much as 30,000, including vigilante killings.
According to Remulla, there came a time when nothing happened to the cases of extrajudicial killings in the country, thus the difficulty in investigating the drug war.
He also said that some of the families had gone to the ICC even before Duterte became president in 2016.
“Hindi sila nagpunta roon nung 3 years ago lang. Nagpunta sila roon 8 or 9 years ago, andon na po sila. Kasi marami ho dito, ‘yung mga nangyari sa Davao, nung mayor pa si [former] President Duterte,” he explained.
(They didn’t go there just 3 years ago. They already went there 8 or 9 years ago. Many of them were cases in Davao, whenDuterte was still mayor.)
Remulla said the investigation showed that there are no police reports in alleged wrongful death situations during the war on drugs.
He said forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun was also consulted on the matter, revealing discrepancies in the death certificates of the victims.
“When she investigated the wrongful death situation, the death certificate indicated cardiac arrest as the cause of death. But in the autopsy, there were bullet holes in the head,” Remulla said.
“When we looked at the records of the wrongful death situations, there were really no police reports. Maybe 95% had no police reports,” he added.
Interior Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla suggested the Senate also investigate the alleged discrepancies in the death certificates of the drug war victims.
“Why doesn’t the Senate try to investigate that and investigate the circumstances surrounding that? Maybe, ma’am, you can come up with a more cohesive report regarding this matter,” Jonvic Remulla told Imee Marcos.
“Has the Senate tried to investigate deaths by cardiac arrest but with bullet holes in the head?”
Earlier on Thursday, Boying Remulla categorically stated that the Philippine government has never spoken to the ICC, which issued an arrest warrant for Duterte. –NB, GMA Integrated News
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