After four months of rigorous investigations, the House Quad Committee on Wednesday recommended the filing of criminal charges against former president Rodrigo Duterte and his top allies, Senators Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, for being “perpetrators” of crimes against humanity in relation to the war on drugs. 

Panel chairperson Ace Barbers said charges should also be brought against former chiefs of the Philippine National Police (PNP), namely Oscar Albayalde and Debold Sinas, and former police colonels Royina Garma and Edilberto Leonardo as well as ex-Palace Herminia “Muking” Espino.

The recommendation was part of the mega-panel’s progress report following 13 exhaustive hearings into alleged extrajudicial killings supposedly committed at the height of the anti-narcotics campaign of the Duterte administration.

Barbers stressed that Duterte, De la Rosa, Go and the said police officers shall be held liable for violating Section 6 of Republic Act 9851, or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and other Crimes against Humanity.

“The former President unequivocally confirmed the existence of the reward system targeting drug personalities and using leftover campaign funds to finance and support the reward system, in contravention of Comelec rules concerning the return of excess campaign funds,” Barbers said as he read the report during the last session of Congress before their holiday break.

The lawmaker pointed out how the investigation “brought to light a harrowing narrative of abuse of power and institutional impunity” by the previous administration. He added that this was evident in the testimonies made under oath by witnesses, including police officers who were implicated in the drug war.

“This is not merely a report of the past wrongdoings, but a call to action,” Barbers lamented. 

It was Garma — Duterte’s alleged trusted aide — who confirmed the cash incentives given to police who killed drug suspects. The monetary rewards, she said, ranged from P20,000 to P1 million, depending on the prominence of the target. 

“Witness testimonies corroborated by evidence revealed a system that incentivized the killing of suspected drug personalities: a system modeled after the so-called Davao template and replicated nationwide,” Barbers added. 

According to Garman, the Davao template was a system of giving cash rewards to police in exchange for killing drug suspects. She mentioned that Duterte ordered Leonardo to create a special task force to implement killing on a national scale after winning the presidency in 2016.

During a Senate hearing in late October, Duterte admitted under oath that he takes “full, legal responsibility” for the summary killings of his brutal drug war and that police officers must be spared from criminal liability.

The former president also admitted that he encouraged police to provoke drug suspects to fight back as a pretext to kill them. 

Human rights lawyer Maria Kristina Conti told the quad comm that they already sued Duterte for heinous crimes, including murder and other inhumane acts, such as illegal arrest and detention, torture, harassment, and violation of the right against due process. 

More than 7,000 were reported killed under Duterte's war on drugs based on the government’s data. 

Duterte’s campaign against drugs, which is currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court, saw over 7,000 deaths.

But local and international human rights organizations, however, estimated that the figures were a far cry from the actual death toll, probably exceeding 30,000, affecting predominantly low-income families and communities.

The Philippines officially cut ties with the Rome Statute in March 2019 pursuant to Duterte’s marching orders. However, the tribunal asserted that it still retains jurisdiction over any potential crimes against humanity that occurred prior to the country’s withdrawal.

Earlier this year, reports circulated that an arrest warrant from the ICC against Duterte is already in the works and that it had also proceeded with its probe especially now that the family of the drug war victims and its perpetrators are starting to come forward.