Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte personally compiled so-called “death lists” and openly bragged about killings carried out during his anti-drug crackdown, prosecutors at an international court alleged.
On the second day of proceedings at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, prosecutor Edward Jeremy presented testimony he described as deeply disturbing.
“As president, Duterte publicly named persons he alleged were involved in drugs, and many of those would end up as victims in his so-called war on drugs,” Mr Jeremy said.
According to the prosecution, the so-called “Duterte list” functioned as an execution roster. It was “basically a death list”, Mr Jeremy cited a witness as saying, before showing footage in which Mr Duterte declared: “I am the sole person responsible for it all.”
Mr Duterte faces three counts of crimes against humanity at the ICC. Among the claims were accounts that minors were suffocated.
“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 (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) PRRD list is a dead list,” Mr Jeremy said.
Prosecutors link him to at least 76 killings between 2013 and 2018, describing that figure as only a small portion of the thousands believed to have died during his anti-drug campaign – first when he served as mayor of Davao City and later as president.
“As witnesses stated, the poor were often targeted, because they were the ones least likely to file complaints against the police,” said Mr Jeremy. In court, Mr Jeremy also played a recording of Mr Duterte making light of “extrajudicial killings” during a public address.
“In this opulent, gilded, presentation room, the officials laugh along with their president while he boasts about his skills in extrajudicial killing,” said Mr Jeremy.
“And outside on the streets of the Philippines, the bodies pile up.”
At that point in the campaign, the prosecutor alleged, nearly 1,500 people had already been killed.
He further described two incidents in which teenagers, around 14 or 15 years old, were detained by the police and allegedly strangled to death.
“It’s difficult to imagine a more terrifying end to two lives that had barely even begun. And these murdered children were then sold to funeral homes.”
An insider witness told prosecutors that Philippine police carried out “one time big time drug operations”, including a single night in 2017 in Bulacan that left 32 people dead.
“As one witness stated, ‘It was hunting season, a killing spree,'” Mr Jeremy said.
The current proceedings are not a full trial but a confirmation-of-charges hearing, during which judges decide whether the case should proceed. Mr Duterte, now 80, chose not to attend, invoking his right to be absent.
His legal team, led by lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, has argued that the former president is frail and experiencing cognitive decline. Prosecutors and victims’ representatives dispute that characterisation, contending he is medically fit but unwilling to confront victims’ families in court. Judges ruled he is capable of attending but allowed him to waive his presence.
On 23 February, Mr Kaufman said his client “maintained his innocence absolutely”. He added that although Mr Duterte was known for “bluster and hyperbole” in his speeches, he repeatedly instructed law enforcement officers to use lethal force only in self-defence.
Once hearings conclude, judges are expected to take up to 60 days to determine whether the case will move forward to a full trial.
Prosecutors also presented an expert on political violence who found a 1,600 per cent surge in police killings in Bulacan and a 598 per cent rise nationwide after Mr Duterte took office, concluding that such dramatic increases point to a widespread policy of extrajudicial executions.
Mr Jeremy also said: “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,” referring to the police’s anti-drug operation.
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