Column: Prosecute Philippine President Duterte for crimes against humanity

On June 14, on the last day of her nine-year term as the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensoua requested an investigation into Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Republic of the Philippines, stating, “I have determined that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed.”

During May, we three participated as subcommissioners in the parallel Independent International Commission of Investigation Into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH). We listened to the testimony of witnesses, victims and survivors of human rights. The Second Report of the commission was released on July 6 — and it includes a series of recommendations, including a clear call for a United Nations-led probe on the human rights violations of the Duterte administration.

In the war on poor people in the guise of a “war on drugs,” the government itself counts 6,011 deaths. Independent investigators estimate that the death toll may be as high as 27,000 to 30,000.

One witness was Dr. Raquel Fortun, professor of forensic pathology at the University of the Philippines. She had been requested by surviving family members to perform autopsies on a number of victims of police killings. A number of the bodies showed evidence of handcuffs or zip ties. Some had bullet wounds in their wrists, which they had raised as they were shot. Nonetheless, the police reports indicated that the victims had resisted arrest and had fought back.

The Second Report also covers Duterte’s war on dissent. Law enforcement and the military “red-tag” — that is, label as communists and terrorists, any progressive elements of society. This includes indigenous people (Lumads), union and farmworker representatives, environmental activists, lawyers, health workers and academics. Under the provisions of the July 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), many of those who are “red-tagged” are killed extrajudicially by the police, the military and anonymous motorcyclists riding tandem. The methods of the so-called “war on drugs” are thus applied to those who criticize or dissent against Duterte.

Finally the Second Report also recounted the war on the Moros, the Muslim people of Mindanao. In 2017, extremist fighters entered Marawi, the cultural and commercial capital of the Moros. In order to root them out, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, with logistical support from the U.S. military, conducted a street-fighting and aerial bombardment campaign that left Marawi in a shambles, looking much like Fallujah or Mosul, Iraqi cities destroyed in the U.S. war.

As the evacuation was incomplete, more than a thousand civilians lost their lives. Four years later, the people have not been allowed to return, and the internally displaced continue to eke out an existence in informal shelters.

U.S. aid continues to underpin military operations in Mindanao as part of the U.S.-backed war on terror.

We call upon the U.S. Congress to pass the Philippines Human Rights Act (PHRA), which would cut off U.S. government funding to the Philippine military and police. The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. State Department would be required to submit a report to the Congressional Appropriations Committee regarding such funding and any misappropriation of any other funding to the Philippine military and police.

Duterte must not be allowed to continue to violate the human rights of the people of the Philippines. He must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

Gary Hooser, Richard Rothschiller and Seiji Yamada served as subcommissioners in the Independent International Commission of Investigation Into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH); its new report is at www.investigate.ph/SecondReport.