The International Criminal Court has received “overwhelming support” for its potential probe from victims of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
“They also bring forward the victims’ views and concerns on the OTP [Office of the Prosecutor] request and on other related matters, including justice, the ICC, the potential scope of an investigation and the impact of the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ has on victims’ lives and their society,” the ICC said in a statement.
The ICC said it received a total of 204 victims’ representations on behalf of around 1,530 individual victims and 1,050 families.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice will submit to President Rodrigo Duterte this week its report on the review it conducted on 52 cases of killings that took place during anti-illegal drugs operations.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday said the DOJ has completed its review of the cases that were submitted by the Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service (PNP-IAS).
“We are submitting a report to the President this week regarding the findings of the DOJ on the 52 cases of drug deaths turned over to us by the PNP. The report will include our recommendations,” Guevarra said in a text message.
The PNP-IAS investigated around 6,000 anti-illegal drugs operations with killings that took place since 2016.
Last June, the PNP-IAS submitted to the DOJ the records of 52 cases after finding administrative liability among the policemen who participated in those anti-drugs operations.
Besides the PNP, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) also submitted to the DOJ last June 107 cases of killings that happened during its operations.
As part of its commitment before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Guevarra created a DOJ-led panel tasked to review these illegal drugs operations following the 2020 killings during anti-illegal drugs operations that started since 2016.
For his part, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar vowed to sustain the “unprecedented” massive reduction in the supply of illegal drugs as a result of its aggressive anti-narcotics operations since 2016.
“Our war on drugs has been relentless since it began in 2016 and we have seen an unprecedented massive reduction in the supply of illegal drugs. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the PNP and other law enforcement units have not let up in sustaining gains we have been achieving towards the goal of eradicating the narcotics trade in the country,” Eleazar said in a statement.
The latest drug war statistics released by PDEA showed that from July 1, 2016 to July 31 this year, more than P62.22 billion worth of illegal drugs and equipment were seized, including 8,134.61 kilograms of shabu worth P51.33 billion.
In the past five years, the operations resulted in the arrest of 303,154 individuals, including 12,849 high-value targets.
Government data also showed that a total of 6,181 drug suspects were killed during operations.