DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 Dec) – Lawmakers recommended the filing of crimes against humanity charges against former President Rodrigo R. Duterte and his allies in relation to his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
Rep. Robert Ace S. Barbers (Surigao del Norte, 2nd Dist.), overall chair of the Committees on Dangerous Drugs, Public Order & Safety, Human Rights and Public Accounts of the House of Representatives (Quad Comm), made the recommendation during his speech at the 3rd Regular Session of the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Other key personalities who the Quad Comm believes must be charged under Section 6 of Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity include Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go; former Philippine National Police chiefs Oscar David Albayalde and Debold Sinas; former police colonels Royina Garma and Edilberto Lenardo; and Hermina “Moking” Espino.
“The most chilling revelations pertain to the extrajudicial killings that have scarred our nation’s history. The investigations brought to light a harrowing narrative of abuse of power and institutional impunity during the Duterte administration,” he said.
Barbers stated that “witness testimonies corroborated by evidence revealed a system that incentivized the killing of suspected drug personalities,” which was inspired by the “Davao Template.”
In a four-page affidavit submitted to the Quad Comm last October, Garma, former general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) who was also police officer for a while in Davao City, admitted that Duterte sought her help to look for someone capable of bringing the “Davao Model” on a national scale during a meeting at his residence in Doña Luisa Subdivision, this city, in May 2016.
Garma explained that this “Davao Model” involved three levels of payments or rewards: reward if the suspect is killed, funding of planned operations or COPLANS, and refund of operational expenses.
During the Quad Comm’s inquiry last Nov. 13, Duterte reiterated his disdain for the criminals, particularly drug lords and drug addicts, even reiterating his controversial pronouncement to “shoot them dead” if they resist the police officers.
Duterte said he would take full legal responsibility for the consequences related to the implementation of the war on drugs.
He stated that he did not order the police officers to kill the innocent victims and that he admitted to killing police scalawags, particularly those involved in illegal drugs, kidnapping, and other crimes, when he was mayor of Davao City.
Before he was elected president in 2016, Duterte served as mayor from 1988 to 1998, representative of the first district from 1998 to 2001, mayor from 2001 to 2010, vice mayor from 2010 to 2013, and mayor from 2013 to 2016. Last Oct. 7, Duterte filed his certificate of candidacy for mayor with his youngest child, incumbent Mayor Sebastian Duterte, as vice mayor.
“These police [scalawags], they have weapons, and they can easily commit a crime, and they have no fear because civilians can’t do anything. That’s why I am angry with the abusive police. So, in Davao, just to make a ‘sample,’ I killed them just so I could tell them to stop,” he said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
