The House Quad Committee is willing to hand over initial findings to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to press charges against perpetrators of the thousands of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) allegedly committed during the brutal drug war of the previous administration.
Panel co-chairs Bienvenido Abante Jr. and Dan Fernandez did not explicitly reference former president Rodrigo Duterte, but in a Senate investigation earlier this week, Duterte bluntly admitted that he would take all the blame for the killings purportedly committed by the police upon his orders.
Abante said they would leave the filing of the necessary charges to the DOJ, noting that Congress lacks authority to initiate criminal prosecution and that its role is limited to making recommendations.
“If the DOJ requests that we turn over documents, we will do it," Abante said, assuring the panel’s commitment to cooperating with the justice system.
The government recorded more than 7,000 deaths during Duterte’s controversial war on drugs.
However, local and international human rights organizations estimated that the death toll exceeded 30,000, with predominantly low-income families and communities affected.
Abante lamented that the “systematic killings” targeted civilians at the lower levels of the drug trade but failed to go after high-profile drug lords.
At the Senate hearing earlier this week, Duterte admitted under oath that he would “take full, legal responsibility” for the extensive killings of his anti-drug campaign, adding that police officers should be spared from liability.
According to Fernandez, Duterte’s admission as commander-in-chief could make him accountable for the EJKs under Republic Act (RA) 9851, the law defining and penalizing crimes against humanity.
“Section 8 [of the law], the command responsibility of the superior, and him being the superior of the land during his incumbency, he will take responsibility,” Fernandez emphasized.
Earlier, House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said Duterte’s unapologetic admission of encouraging police to provoke drug suspects to fight back as a pretext to kill them is a “clear violation of human rights and due process,” which the International Criminal Court (ICC) should investigate.
The Philippines withdrew from the ICC in March 2019, but some lawmakers have insisted that it retains jurisdiction over any potential crimes against humanity committed during the drug war.