SOME family members of drug suspects killed during the previous administration’s war on drugs on Monday came face to face with former president Rodrigo Duterte, the architect of the bloody campaign against illegal drugs.
Duterte, who attended the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee investigation of his war against illegal drugs, peppered his statement with expletives, but Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III declined to strike his remarks from the transcript despite Sen. Risa Hontiveros’ call to admonish him.
Among the resource persons invited were former senator Leila de Lima and Commission on Human Rights Chairman Richard Palpal-latoc. De Lima has blamed Duterte for drug charges that kept her detained for years but which were eventually thrown out of court. De Lima was elected senator in 2016 but was detained in 2017 on drug charges initiated by the Duterte government. On June 24, 2024, the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court acquitted her from all criminal cases.
Randy delos Santos, the uncle of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, who was killed in a police buy-bust in Caloocan in 2016, said they have not yet fully achieved justice despite the conviction of the police officers responsible for the teenager’s death. Santos said he was fired from his job when news came out linking his family to illegal drugs.
Christina Gonzales, wife of an alleged drug pusher killed during the drug war, testified that they got their supply from policemen themselves. She said the policemen allayed their fears when the war on drugs was implemented.
But on July 5, 2016 the policemen took her husband. “He never returned home. We just learned that he was at the morgue already,” she said in Filipino.
Free Legal Assistance Group chairman Chel Diokno and Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, founder of Program Paghilom, who help families of victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK), were also present.
Hontiveros questioned the reported incentive system that she said granted rewards to policemen who killed suspected drug offenders.
“It should not be an honor to be called ‘The Punisher’ when thousands of innocent people, including babies, have died in your name. Filipinos will never be proud of that war on drugs,” Hontiveros said.
But Sen. Bong Go, Duterte’s former special assistant, dismissed allegations of human rights abuses during the Duterte administration.
“Former president Duterte’s only desire is to clean up our country and fight those who sow terror, especially when it comes to illegal drugs,” the senator said as he denied the alleged reward system for policemen who killed drug suspects during anti-drug operations.
“As far as I know, he has never implemented any system in exchange for anyone’s life. We don’t want law enforcement officers themselves to violate human rights, and we also don’t want drug dealers to sow terror in every street we pass,” Go said in Filipino.
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