The world is getting smaller for police officers known to have been involved in the Duterte regime’s bloody war on drugs.
The Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has rejected the application for permanent residence of Jose Ahuday, a former element of the Philippine National Police (PNP) assigned to the Drug Enforcement Unit of the Jose Abad Santos Police Station in Manila.
Ahuday resigned from the PNP and immigrated to Canada in 2021 with his wife and applied for permanent residence in 2023. However, his application was rejected on the grounds that he was deemed inadmissible to Canada for being complicit in crimes committed by Philippine state authorities in relation to the Duterte regime’s war on drugs. The Immigration Division’s rejection of Ahuday’s application has been upheld in a judicial review conducted by a Canadian federal court which issued its ruling on January 7, 2025.
The rejection by Canada of the permanent residence application of a former implementer of Oplan Tokhang is indicative of the widespread international contempt for, and condemnation of Duterte’s drug war. It will be remembered that in January 2020, former PNP chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s US visa was cancelled in accordance with the Magnitsky Act which restricts foreign officials accused of violations of human rights from entering the United States.
While they were in Hongkong, Duterte and his party reportedly tried but failed to seek refuge in China when news of the arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) first leaked out, leaving them with no choice but to return to the Philippines.
Rodrigo Duterte’s subsequent arrest for crimes against humanity now has his subalterns who blindly followed his kill, kill, kill orders scrambling for places to hide. But they are fast facing a shrinking world because they are just as hated as their master by the international community.