Youth group calls out 'pa-victim' behavior

MANILA, Philippines — Kitty Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, should stop playing the victim card after her father’s arrest and turnover to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, according to youth group Kabataan Partylist.

“Stop this pa-victim behavior. Your family is not the victim. Your father is the victimizer,” said Renee Louise Co, Kabataan Partylist’s first nominee in the midterm elections.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Duterte for the alleged crime against humanity of murder stemming from his bloody war on drugs.

“In the eyes of Filipinos, Duterte will always be the dictator, murderer, and victimizer, never the victim. Kitty Duterte’s social media activity is ironic and insulting to a lot of youth who lived through Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody regime,” Co said.

“You and your family are playing victims despite your complicity and deafening silence over your father’s war on drugs that killed 30,000 Filipinos, many of them youths,” she added.

Co recalled the tragic stories of victims such as Christina Padual, 29, who was shot while eating dinner, and Kian de los Santos, 17, who pleaded for his life before being killed by the police. She also cited Myca Ulpina, a 3-year-old girl who was shot dead during a police operation, with former police chief and current senator Ronald dela Rosa dismissing it with the remark, “sh*t happens.”

De Lima sees Duterte’s arrest as vindication

Former senator Leila de Lima, who was detained for nearly seven years on drug-related charges she maintained were politically motivated, said Duterte’s arrest is part of her vindication.

“I was jailed for almost seven years because I fought against the killings under their bloody war on drugs,” De Lima said in an interview with One News' Storycon on Tuesday.

She also dismissed claims that an arrest warrant from a Philippine court was necessary for Duterte’s ICC detention.

“I just feel so vindicated that finally, justice is now rolling, and that is the true hope of victims of extrajudicial killings and their families,” she said.

De Lima pointed out that despite the Duterte administration’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, Article 127 mandates continued cooperation with the ICC.

House leaders: Justice for EJK victims

Duterte’s arrest and turnover to the ICC are not about political persecution but about justice for thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings, according to two House leaders.

“Now that justice is finally within reach, Duterte and his allies want to rewrite the narrative, framing this as political persecution. But the real persecution happened in our streets, in our alleys, in our communities—where the powerless were gunned down in cold blood,” Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong and Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said in a joint statement.

They cited cases like that of Carl Angelo Arnaiz, 19, who went missing for 10 days before being found dead in a morgue with gunshot wounds, and Reynaldo de Guzman, 14, who was found lifeless in a creek in Nueva Ecija with multiple stab wounds.