For years and amid all barriers to access justice, families of victims of extrajudicial killings have pursued all domestic mechanisms to go after perpetrators in the Philippines. Despite the thousands of victims in Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, only a few were investigated and a handful reached the courts.
The justice system in the Philippines has failed the victims, over and over again. Former Justice Department secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla himself said that the local justice system is weak to prosecute Rodrigo Duterte.
Filing charges at the International Criminal Court is the victims’ last recourse in seeking justice. They have all the right and reason to hold accountable those who stripped them of the right to due process, to life and to rights.
We can only hope that the senators know that in supporting the victims, it is important to discern the accountability of those who were accessory to and with direct involvement in the mass murder of Filipinos during the time of Duterte, including their own colleagues.