President Duterte will be investigated and tried before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alleged extrajudicial executions of more than 1,400 persons in Davao City based on the testimonies of Edgar Matobato and retired SPO3 Arthur Lascanas.
Lawyer Jude Sabio, in filing a criminal case for crimes against humanity against Duterte and his senior officials before the ICC, is holding the President accountable for the alleged bloody purge he caused while he was still mayor of Davao.
The testimonies of Matobato and Lascanas, who both admitted being part in the past of the Davao Death Squad (DDS), showed that Duterte, as then mayor of Davao City, has direct knowledge of and participation in the killings of the group.
“In fact, he has publicly admitted that he is the DDS and that he killed not just 700 but 1,700 persons. Furthermore, he has also admitted that he killed three to four persons while he was the mayor and in one instance, he did it to show to the police that if he could do it then they should be able to do it themselves,” Sabio said in a 77-page communication submitted to the ICC.
Sabio, lawyer of Matobato, also mentioned the President’s public pronouncements where he boasted that he usually went out at night in Davao City to look for a confrontation with a suspected criminal so that he would be able to kill.
“Since he is also aware and knows about the extrajudicial executions in his war on drugs, he is sought directly to be criminally liable. In the alternative, since he knows or has reason to know of the continuing commission of the extrajudicial executions or mass murders ever since he was mayor of Davao City, his failure to stop such criminal conduct in his war on drugs now that he is already the President, just like his evident failure in Davao City, makes him criminally liable under the principle of command responsibility,” he said.
Sabio said Duterte should also be held liable for his failure to stop the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) from committing the crimes of murder, persecution, mental torture and imprisonment.
“Furthermore, his serious threats to kill and his public incitement of the police and the public to mass murder and violence with the air of furthering the commission of extrajudicial executions, with his knowledge and as part of a conscious aim to encourage the attack on a civilian population, make him directly criminally liable or responsible for crimes against humanity through murder,” said Sabio.
The lawyer also said Duterte is liable for his public statements labelling drug users as criminals without the benefit of due process, for calling on the police to kill these criminals and for promising to pardon policemen who carry out his sweeping orders to kill drug users and dealers, regardless of the findings of other investigative government agencies and even in case of conviction by local courts.
