Senate urged: Probe drug war killings, not Rody arrest

The Senate is being urged to investigate the rampant killings of suspected users and pushers during the previous administration's war on drugs, instead of tackling the alleged irregularities in the Philippine government's arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

- MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

During the Senate foreign relations committee hearing on Thursday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla took issue with presiding chair Sen.

Imee Marcos' focus on the alleged lack of due process when the government whisked Duterte to The Hague to face his crimes against humanity case before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Marcos dedicated time at the hearing to show the pivot in the position of her brother, President Marcos, from noncooperation with the ICC to helping the foreign tribunal enforce its arrest warrant against Duterte.

The Remulla brothers tried to shift the topic away from Marcos' defense of Duterte to the fight for justice of the grieving mothers and widows in Duterte's drug war.

The justice secretary defended the victims' move to file a case before the ICC instead of availing themselves of legal remedies in domestic courts.

"They tried to seek justice in the Philippines, but our justice system failed them," he said.

Victims could not build up a case because either the police refused to give them reports or could not give them a decent ballistic investigation of the killings, either by police forces or vigilantes.

"In the drug war, there is no police blotter. The prosecutors are threatened by the police. Extrajudicial killings were not investigated during this time. Even death certificates of victims claimed they died of cardiac arrest, when they had bullet holes in the head," he said.