The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) has welcomed the arrest of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, calling it “a significant step towards justice” for victims of drug-related killings under his administration.
In a statement released on March 18, PEPP said families of victims of extrajudicial killings “held higher their hopes” on March 11, when the Philippine National Police served a warrant of arrest to Duterte issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
“This marks progress towards accountability, upholding of human rights, and God’s gift of human dignity,” PEPP said. “The arrest is a signal to end the culture of impunity prevalent in the country. It is also a right path towards achieving peace based on justice.”
Duterte’s “bloody ‘war on drugs,’” the group said, led to thousands of deaths, many of them poor and marginalized, with families “pushed deeper into poverty as many victims were breadwinners.”
The group noted that even children were killed, whom Duterte and Sen. Bato Dela Rosa described as “mere ‘collateral damage.’”
PEPP noted that the Duterte administration ignored calls to address the root causes of drug abuse and criminality, such as poverty, unemployment, lack of access to essential services, unequal distribution of resources, corruption, and poor governance.
These underlying issues, the group emphasized, were critical factors contributing to unrest and social instability.
“His refusal to heed these calls has now led to his reckoning, as he is now facing the bars of justice for the lives his drug war took, lives he was sworn to protect,” the statement added.
PEPP also criticized Duterte’s 2017 termination of peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and his declaration branding the NDFP, Communist Party of the Philippines, and New People’s Army as “communist-terrorist organizations.”
It cited the formation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) as leading to “rampant red-tagging, filing of trumped-up charges, tokhang-style extrajudicial killings like the ‘Bloody Sunday’ of 2021 in CALABARZON, and other violations on human rights and international humanitarian law.”
“As peace advocates, we continue to stand in solidarity with the families of the victims and affirm the sanctity of human life through human rights,” PEPP said.
The group renewed calls for the resumption of peace talks and urged President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to “abolish the NTF-ELCAC and other laws like the ATL, which are impediments to the peace process.”
“Let us pray and participate in ensuring that God’s justice and righteousness will prevail in the verdict of Duterte’s upcoming trial, revealing how the Lord of all despises evilness, especially the mistreatment of widows and orphans (Exod. 22: 22-25),” PEPP said.
The statement was signed by Archbishop Emeritus Antonio J. Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro; Bishop Rex B. Reyes Jr. of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines; Bishop Emeritus Deogracias S. Iñiguez of Kalookan; Benedictine Sister Mary John D. Mananzan; and Ms. Minnie Anne M. Calub of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.
