THE CASE investigation formally began when lawyer Jude Sabio filed a formal complaint to the ICC, alleging that the “terrifying, gruesome and disastrous” drug war caused the deaths of more than 7,000 people. He said that Duterte, for over 30 years, had committed “repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously” mass murder that began in 1988, when Duterte became mayor of Davao City, and continued when he became president.
Among the several testimonies he submitted was that of Duterte’s self-confessed hitman, Edgar Matobato, who was granted immunity and protection in a foreign country in return.
Beside Matobato, there is Arturo Lascanas, a former police officer who admitted that he may have killed as many as 200 people, allegedly on Duterte’s orders. In an interview with the United Kingdom’s Observer newspaper, he said: “Sometimes we kidnapped our subject and put the packing tape on their head until they suffocated, and then we would throw them in the street.” They and other witnesses are likely to be called to testify during the court proceedings against Duterte.
Duterte could be convicted of murder with his own statements. He was quoted as saying in a television address: “In Davao, I used to do it personally (kill people). Just to show to the guys [police officers] that if I can do it, why can’t you.”
He also said: “[I’d] go around in Davao with a motorcycle … and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill.”
Social workers from Tambayan, a children’s rights-focused nongovernmental organization in Davao City, requested this writer in 1999 to help expose the killing of street children by motorbike-riding hit squads. I began an international letter-writing campaign to then-Davao City mayor Benjamin de Guzman, who stood in for Duterte when he was elected to Congress. Hundreds of letters to the mayor poured in from around the world, protesting the killings. The mayor was angry at me and filed libel charges. I was subpoenaed to be arraigned.
I was met at the airport by about 50 street children with tin cans and plastic bugles. They made a noisy protective circle around me from a possible hit man and led me to a waiting jeepney. The case was called, but the mayor failed to show up in the courtroom, which was filled with members of the media. I told them I would not pay bail but would fight for justice for the street kids from jail. The mayor sent a letter to the judge while we were waiting, saying he was withdrawing his complaint.
Years later, I received a mobile phone call in the presence of Francis Bermido Jr., president of the Preda Foundation, threatening that I would be assassinated by a hit squad from Davao. Later, they asked for money to call it off. We realized it was most likely a scam. They were taking advantage of the climate of fear during the time of Duterte. I paid nothing.
Now, Duterte will answer for the many assassinations he allegedly instigated and must answer for./PN
