Marcos: DoJ reviewing Duterte EJK charges

The Department of Justice will review the recommendation of the House Quad Committee to file crimes against humanity charges against former President Rodrigo Duterte, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Thursday.

The committee also recommended the same charges against Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go, as well as several former police officials, in connection with the alleged extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration’s “war on drugs.”

At the end of Duterte’s term in 2022, the police reported about 7,000 people killed in supposedly legitimate anti-drug operations. Anti-crime and human rights groups, however, claimed as many as 30,000 actually died.

“That’s exactly the process. When they do an oversight hearing, they have findings. Now they need to forward it to the DoJ. These are all recommendations on how to handle the findings from the hearings,” Marcos told reporters.

The President said the DoJ will look into the charges and see if there’s time to file cases, what cases to file, and how to come up with the evidence needed to build the cases.

“There is still a lot that needs to be carefully assessed as to what the cases may be and whether the direction of the recommendation of the House committee is correct,” he added.

Responding to the House super panel recommendation, DoJ Undersecretary Jesse Andres said on Thursday they would prosecute the individuals involved if the evidence warrants it.

Andres said the DoJ will not pursue cases simply to harass anyone, stressing that any action taken would be evidence-based.

“If the evidence warrants it, and there is enough to hold people accountable, a very intensive case build-up will be conducted,” Andres said, adding that the quad comm’s report would serve as a key input.

Subpoenas

To recall, the DoJ had previously formed a task force to investigate the extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

“We will consolidate the findings of the DoJ task force and the quad comm’s,” Andres said.

He explained that after the reports are gathered, an evaluation would follow, which may include additional investigations and the issuance of subpoenas to witnesses.

These steps are aimed at collecting the necessary evidence to determine whether crimes under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or crimes against humanity were indeed committed.

Andres noted the admissions made on record by Duterte at a committee hearing, saying they are admissible as evidence as they were made under oath and in a public proceeding.

The Duterte administration’s war on drugs was one of the most controversial government campaigns in Philippine history, marked by thousands of deaths and allegations of human rights abuses.

The killing of 17-year-old Kian Loyd de los Santos in 2017 symbolized the alleged abuses.

De los Santos’ killing during a police anti-drug operation was caught on CCTV. It was backed by witness accounts but was contradicted in the official police narrative. In a rare instance of accountability during the drug war, the case led to the conviction of three policemen for murder.

ICC angle

In the global arena, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had taken an interest in the Philippines’ war on drugs. The ICC began a preliminary examination in 2018 into the alleged crimes against humanity.

This was followed by a formal investigation in 2021, although this faced challenges after the Duterte administration withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019.

Despite the withdrawal, the ICC maintained it had jurisdiction over crimes committed when the Philippines was a member state. The ICC investigation was criticized by Duterte’s allies who argued it infringed on the Philippines’ sovereignty.

The Marcos administration has expressed a reluctance to cooperate fully with the ICC investigation but has left the door open to domestic legal processes.

Observers noted that the House quad committee’s recommendations, paired with the DoJ’s investigation, would be pivotal in determining whether the accountability for the drug war would be pursued by the government or left to the international body.

Duterte party reacts

Meanwhile, Duterte’s political party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP Laban), criticized the recommendation to charge the former president and Senators Dela Rosa and Go.

It said the panel’s report was “politically driven” and “lacked evidentiary basis.”

“This act by the quad comm is clearly politically motivated and has no clear legal and evidentiary basis, as the testimonies gathered during the hearings were obtained under pressure or coercion, with the resource persons always threatened with contempt if they did not follow the script of the committee,” it said.

The PDP Laban averred that the ultimate objective of the House of Representatives under Speaker Martin Romualdez is to tarnish the Duterte name with the drug killing charges.

Likewise, the House is also being painted as doing a political hatchet job on Vice President Sara Duterte over the alleged misuse of confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education when it was under her.

VP Duterte and Romualdez are seen as top contenders in the 2028 presidential election.

“This clearly shows that the House of Representatives has launched a carefully planned, well-funded, but poorly executed demolition job against FPRRD and his allies ahead of the 2025 elections,” the PDP Laban said.