By Atty. Neri Colmenares, Bayan Muna
As a lawyer I was expecting Vice President Sara Duterte to base her statements regarding the case on the complaints and pleadings officially filed in the International Criminal Court (ICC) rather than media reports. The complaint we filed in the ICC listed 3,427 killed as of July 31, 2018 because this was the number of victims killed as officially admitted by the Philippine National Police (PNP). Our complaint did not state any number other than that admitted by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s PNP because as lawyers, we want to base our complaint on official figures.
Later Pres. Duterte through his Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) admitted that 6,252 were killed in the Drug War. Whose complaint or what pleading VP Duterte got her 30,000 is surprising for us since that was not the number in any of the pleadings we filed in the ICC. If she thinks that her father cannot be convicted because he only ordered the killing of less than 30,000 people, then she is dead wrong. We challenge VP Duterte and her lawyers to use this “less than 30,000 deaths” argument in the confirmation hearing if they really believe that failure to prove 30,000 deaths is not crime against humanity.
In any case, if she plans to lawyer for Pres. Duterte, she should know that the Rome Statute does not require a specific number to prove crimes against humanity.
The elements of crimes against humanity under Article 7 paragraph 1 only require a “widespread or systematic attack against civilians” proven by “multiple attacks” defined under Art. 7 par. 2 (a) and does not require a specific number of deaths. The evidence that the attacks were committed in various regions and provinces in the Philippines for at least six years alone prove widespread attacks can never be rebutted by Pres. Dutertes lawyers. VP Duterte should know that the ICC rules require widespread or systematic attacks and either of the two constitutes an element of crime against humanity.
Second, the 43 cases mentioned by the prosecutor in his application for a warrant merely provided a representation of the widespread attacks merely for the purpose of requesting for the issuance of the warrant. The charges he may file for the September 23 confirmation hearing may not be even limited to 43 cases. While the 43 cases are enough to convict Pres. Duterte for crimes against humanity, we call on the current PNP and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to submit other reports and official documents to the ICC or the victims’ families so it can be considered as additional evidence in the trial.
Pres. Duterte will lose in the Confirmation Hearing if he uses this “less than 30,000 deaths” to claim that there is no case of crime against humanity against him. Dominic Owen (former Lord’s Resistance Army leader) was convicted in 2021 for 61 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his attacks in Northern Uganda from 2002 to 2005 and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Bosco Ntaganda (former Congolese rebel leader) was convicted in 2019 on five counts of crime against humanity for his attacks against civilians in a district in Congo and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. His co-perpetrator Germain Katanga was convicted by the ICC in 2014 for one count of crimes against humanity and four counts of war crimes for his attacks in the same district in Congo and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
Based on these ICC decisions, there is no way that the ICC will release Pres. Duterte because less than 30,000 killed are not serious enough to be considered crimes against humanity.
The issue isn’t just about the exact number of dead—it’s about a president openly ordering killings, police acting with impunity, and a justice system that failed victims. The ICC exists precisely because powerful figures like Duterte evade local accountability. Whether it’s 30 or 30,000, state-sponsored murder is a crime against humanity. #