Karapatan renewed its call to lawmakers at the House of Representatives to pass pending resolutions urging the Marcos Jr. government to cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) ongoing probe of the Duterte regime’s bloody anti-drug war.
Meanwhile, a similar resolution has likewise been filed at the Senate by Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
“This growing clamor in the legislative branch reflects the public’s desire to exact justice and accountability for the horrendous killings and other human rights violations that marked the Duterte regime’s war on drugs,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
“This question would not even be raised if domestic redress mechanisms were really functioning,” added Palabay. “But it is clear that the Philippine judiciary is inutile in rendering justice to the drug war victims, with only three convictions under its belt in the face of up to 30,000 drug war-related killings perpetrated by police forces and police-sanctioned vigilante death squads since Duterte’s bloody campaign began in mid-2016.”
“It is high time that the Marcos Jr. government cooperates with ICC prosecutors in their investigation of Duterte’s drug war killings and proves to the victims that it supports their demands for justice, accountability and an end to impunity.”
The House resolutions are set to be discussed today in a joint hearing by the congressional justice and human rights committees, the second to be held on the issue.
Meanwhile, youth groups have announced that they will be staging a protest action outside the House of Representatives to call for justice for all victims of the war on drugs and state terrorism.