De Lima: Duterte ‘mastermind’ of EJK

Former senator Leila De Lima, one of the fiercest critics of the so-called extrajudicial killings of the Duterte administration, implicated former president Rodrigo Duterte of being a "mastermind" of the brutal anti-drug campaign that killed at least 7,000 people. 

"There is no doubt in my mind that former President Rodrigo Duterte is the mastermind, as he was the instigator and inducer of the drug war killings," De Lima stressed on Monday's hearing of the House Committee on Human Rights into the previous administration's alleged crime against humanity.

"The drug war was implemented as an official Duterte program of government when he assumed office as president," De Lima told the House Committee on Human Rights, which is conducting an inquiry into alleged drug-related EJKs during the Duterte administration. 

De Lima vehemently asserted that the war against illegal drugs was an official program during Duterte's watch, implemented through "Oplan Double Barrel," a documented operational plan of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

"These killings were intentionally and deliberately carried out as part and parcel of Oplan Double Barrel upon Duterte's orders as President and Chief Executive from 2016 to 2022," De Lima said in her opening statement.

De Lima was among the resource speakers invited to the hearing, alongside former PNP chief Oscar Albayalde, who served as one of the chief architects of Duterte's bloody drug war. 

Based on the government's data, approximately 7,000 people were killed in Duterte's anti-narcotics operations or "oplan tokhang" from 2016 to 2022.

Local and international human rights organizations, however, estimated that the death toll exceeded 30,000, affecting predominantly low-income families and communities.

According to De Lima, the systematic attack on civilians during Duterte's anti-drug operations is considered a crime against humanity under international humanitarian law.

"The 2016 to 2022 drug war is a mere offshoot of the DDS experience in Davao," she explained. "What happened was that the systematic [EJKs] perpetrated by then-mayor Duterte and the PNP of Davao were replicated at the national level when Duterte assumed the presidency."

De Lima, a former Justice secretary, was detained in 2017 for drug charges after criticizing the "Davao death squad" allegedly orchestrated by Duterte during his stint as Davao mayor. She walked free from all three drug charges last month.

De Lima described a chilling system where assassination squads, comprising active policemen and civilian hitmen, were organized to carry out these killings. 

The Makabayan bloc, which previously appealed to the committee to invite Duterte and Senator Ronald "Bato" de la Rosa, reiterated their call to summon the two to testify in the congressional probe.

Panel chairperson, Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., has vowed that they would uphold transparency in the inquiry.

"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.

Duterte and De la Rosa, who also served as PNP chief from 2016 to mid-2018, were explicitly named as subjects of the International Criminal Court's ongoing investigation into the so-called crime against humanity after it was put on hold in November 2021 pursuant to the Philippines' request.