Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify the description of the Davao Death Squad. An earlier version of the story described it as Duterte’s Davao Death Squad.
(Updated) Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa said there is no need for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate human rights violations under former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war considering that police officers involved in the killings had been charged and ultimately convicted. This needs context.
STATEMENT
In the June 27 Kapihan sa Senado, Dela Rosa said:
“Why go to ICC na functioning naman ‘yung ating mga korte dito, ‘di ba? Kasi gusto nila na i-la-lump lahat ‘yan, na gawing crimes against humanity at ipapasa sa ICC when, in fact,… some of these cases pagdating pa lang sa DOJ dismissed na agad…”
(Why go to the ICC when our local courts are functioning, right? It is because they want to lump everything as crimes against humanity and submit it to the ICC when, in fact,… some of these cases were immediately dismissed upon filing at the DOJ.”
Source: INQUIRER.net, LIVE: Kapihan sa Senado with Senator Ronald Dela Rosa | June 27, June 27, 2024, watch from 8:48 to 11:47
In the same video, Dela Rosa, the chief implementer of Duterte’s drug war as PNP chief from 2016 to 2018, was asked if human rights violation cases were investigated. He answered:
“Meron. Nakasuhan nga ‘yung mga pulis na gumawa no’ng… may bata na binaril doon sa Caloocan ‘di ba? Eh, ano pa ‘yun, hindi ba ‘yun violation ng human rights? Kaya nga na-convict ‘yung mga pulis na ‘yun, ‘di ba? So meron, meron.”
(Yes. They were charged, the policemen who committed those… there was a kid who was shot in Caloocan, right? Is that not a violation of human rights? That is why those policemen were convicted, correct? So yes, yes.)
Source: watch from 21:16 to 23:53
FACT
While many police officers have been charged, there have been only three court convictions of the estimated 12,000 to 30,000 killings under the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
On June 18, four police officers were convicted of homicide for the murders of Luis Bonifacio and his son, Gabriel. The two were killed in September 2016 in their house.
In 2023, a policeman was convicted for the deaths of Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” De Guzman—five years after their murder. The accused was found guilty of torture and planting evidence.
In 2018, three policemen were found guilty for the murder of Kian Lloyd Delos Santos. This has been the lone drug-war case to receive a conviction for murder.
According to the ICC, it can investigate and prosecute individuals if the State concerned “does not, cannot or is unwilling to do so genuinely.” On May 24, 2021 the ICC prosecutor requested authorization from the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) I to look into the crimes committed in the Philippines during Duterte’s drug war.
Despite petitions to deny the request, PTC I authorized the investigation, saying that the Philippines has failed to prove that it has “conducted or is conducting national investigations that sufficiently mirror the investigation authorized by the Chamber.”
The decision further states that proceedings made were “overwhelmingly against low-level and physical perpetrators” and do not address “possible patterns or policy behind the killings.”
This was not the first time that Dela Rosa questioned the ICC’s involvement in the victims’ pursuit of justice. The senator also made a misleading claim on the Court’s complementary principle back in February 2023.
He is only one of many public figures who have made similar statements on the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Philippines that either mislead or lack context.
Apart from being Duterte’s first PNP chief at the height of the bloody drug war, Dela Rosa was also the local police chief in Davao City when the former president was mayor. The ICC probe includes the killings by the Davao Death Squad, a vigilante group that has been associated with Duterte.
Editor’s note: This fact check was produced with the help of a journalism student of the University of the Philippines Baguio as part of their internship at VERA Files.
