Duterte drug war victims ‘had to be the poor’

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – The prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC) provided more details on Tuesday, February 24, about the quality of insider witnesses they have to support allegations of Rodrigo Duterte’s policy of widespread killings.

References to these witnesses suggest they were privy to instructions given to the police during Duterte’s presidency. This is the first time there are this many details about the profiles of these witnesses and what they said.

One of the witnesses said Oplan Tokhang had to target the poor because they have no capacity to sue.

“As witnesses stated, the poor were often targeted because they were the ones least likely to file complaints against the police. To quote one witness on our next slide, he stated, ‘it was said that the ones that we had to do the TokHang operation on had to be poor – those who do not have the means to file a complaint or to complain,” prosecution trial lawyer Edward Jeremy said on Tuesday, during the second day of the confirmation of charges hearing against Duterte.

Witnesses will not be identified at this stage. Lead defense counsel Nicholas Kaufman had requested to disclose who some of the witnesses are during the pre-trial proceedings, but judges of the ICC did not agree, saying that the witnesses’ safety should be ensured.

Witness to Benjamin Visda killing

The prosecution also has a witness to the killing of Benjamin Visda, a widely reported case of a man who was forced onto a motorcycle, sandwiched between two policemen. CCTV footage played during the hearing showed the motorcycle speed off, as women and children ran behind it.

Visda was killed and later reported to be a case of nanlaban, or fighting back.

“The witness stated: ‘The victim was lying on the street in handcuffs and was dead. He’d been shot in the head seven or eight times.’ [The police spot] report stated that Mr. Visda was killed by the police in self-defense after he snatched the firearm of a police officer while he was on a motorbike, while wearing handcuffs, and he shot at the police, but missed,” said Jeremy.

“This narrative is false. Benjamin Visda did not fight back. He was murdered,” Jeremy said.

After the hearing, Duterte’s former legal adviser Salvador Panelo insisted that Visda was a case of “nanlaban.”

“You know, when you’re involved in drugs, you will never allow yourself to be arrested. Lalaban ka at lalaban ka (you’ll always fight),” said Panelo.

‘PRRD list is a kill list’

The prosecution also has a witness who alleged that those on Duterte’s so-called narco-list were marked for death. The list, also known as the PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) list, identified suspected drug offenders during his administration.

“I turn to the words of another insider witness. I quote: ‘This list was used by the police in their operations. And if you are in the list, you will be the subject for police operations. And most of the time, the people on the list are killed. So basically, the PRRD list is a dead list,'” said Jeremy.

The late Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa was also on the PRRD list. The prosecution obtained an Excel sheet showing that the word “neutralized” was marked on Espinosa’s box after he was killed by policemen searching his jail cell.

The Duterte administration had said that “neutralize” meant to suppress violence and criminality, and not necessarily to kill. But in Espinosa’s case, his arrest was not enough to mark him as “neutralized” – only his death did.

“In a further indication that to neutralize meant to kill. As we see here, it is only on the date of their death, the 5th of November 2016, that they were noted as neutralized,” said Jeremy.

A witness further said policemen “used the word neutralize to emphasize the kill order of President Duterte,” said Jeremy.

“You have to look at the circumstances under which they were killed,” said Panelo.

‘It’s hunting season’

There is also an insider witness who spoke to the prosecution about the police’s “one time big time drug operations,” that at one point in 2017 killed 32 people in a single night in Bulacan.

“As one witness stated, ‘It was hunting season, a killing spree,'” said Jeremy.

Prosecution trial lawyer Robyn Croft said they also have an expert witness who studied political violence in the Philippines. In the expert’s data set, there was a 1,600% increase in police killings in Bulacan since Duterte took office, and a 598% increase nationwide.

“The expert concluded that the only plausible explanation for such an extreme ratio is a widespread policy of extrajudicial executions,” said Croft.

“Then file it in the Philippine court, not here. This court has no business assuming jurisdiction over us because it has none,” said Panelo after the hearing. – Rappler.com