The arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity is a welcome but long overdue step toward justice, Berlita Ante, deputy spokesperson of Bayan Negros, said in a press statement.
As the former killer-in-chief of the country, he waged an all-out war not just in the cities through his fake drug war but also in the countryside, where his counterinsurgency campaign turned entire communities into killing fields, she said.
Through Memorandum Order 32, Duterte deployed thousands of military and police forces to Negros, making the province a center of his brutal counterinsurgency. His reign of terror left a trail of massacres, killings, coordinated raids, illegal arrests, and forced displacement, Ante said
Among them were Alexander Ceballos, a peasant leader assassinated in front of his home. Zara Alvarez, a human rights worker and teacher shot dead after being tagged as a terrorist. Toto Patigas, a tireless advocate for land reform executed by motorcycle-riding gunmen. Ben Ramos, a people’s lawyer who spent his life defending the oppressed, silenced by armed men. Their murders were not random acts of violence but part of a systematic campaign of repression designed to crush dissent and terrorize the people into submission, she said.
Duterte was also the mastermind of the NTF-ELCAC, which served as a tool for red-tagging and corruption. Generals and military officials pocketed billions through fake surrenderees and bogus development programs while using the task force to justify relentless attacks on the legal democratic movement, Ante’s statement said.
The ICC arrest is just the beginning. Duterte must be convicted, and all those who carried out his orders, especially those still seated in power, must be held accountable. Without continued public pressure, the case would not prosper and justice could be denied once again, she said.
Beyond Duterte, his daughter Sara must also face accountability. The impeachment proceedings against her must push through, and she must answer for corruption, plunder, and abuse of power. The Duterte dynasty and its enablers must be permanently dismantled so they can never again return to power, Ante said.
This arrest must not be exploited by the other faction of the ruling elite. The Marcoses cannot use Duterte’s downfall to cleanse their own bloodstained hands. We remember their crimes, both past and present. This signals not just the beginning of Duterte’s reckoning but mounting pressure on the current administration and a warning to all those in power: no crime will go unpunished, the statement concluded.*
