Families of 3 Zamboanga Sibugay drug war victims see hope with Duterte arrest

Their long-awaited moment happened – the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte by authorities on Tuesday, March 11, acting on the request of Interpol based on an ICC-issued warrant. The former president was later flown out of the country on board a chartered flight to The Hague in the Netherlands

In 2021, the families, represented by a retired judge from Ipil town in Zamboanga Sibugay, submitted their representations to the ICC after the court asked victims’ families to send in their “views, concerns and expectations.”

Aida Sawadjaan could hardly contain her emotions when she heard the news. “The day has finally come,” she said in Cebuano, her voice trembling with a mixture of disbelief and relief.

At first, she dismissed the news when her daughter told her about Duterte’s arrest upon his arrival from Hong Kong  at the Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. 

“I didn’t believe it. But when I read the reports, it was like the sun rose for me after nine years of darkness,” the 59-year-old Sawadjaan said.

Sawadjaan’s son, 19-year-old Anwar, and his two friends – 22-year-old Noel Rey Bacalso and 20-year-old Angelo Hofer – were gunned down by police during the first wave of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. 

Authorities have claimed it was a drug-related shootout on July 29, 2016, along a highway in Overview village, Liloy town, Zamboanga del Norte near Zamboanga Sibugay.

Police have accused the three young men of being drug couriers, supposedly killed after resisting arrest at a checkpoint. The lawyer of the families rejected the police narrative, citing eyewitness accounts that there was no police checkpoint in the area and that cops opened fire on the unarmed men while they were inside their pickup truck.

After nine years, she had nearly given up hope that justice would ever be served. The case she and the other victims’ families filed against the police officers responsible had been dragging since 2016, moving at an agonizingly slow pace.

“Good for Duterte,” she said. “At least he’s being given due process – something my son never got.”

Despite the indictment of Police Captain Ernesto Etorne Jr. and patrolmen Rodel Sorela, Archer Rendon, Lodgin Neri, and Bryan Galea on October 8, 2019, the case has remained stagnant.

No arrest warrants have been issued against them, and the murder case remains pending in a regional court in Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte.

The Department of Justice included their case among 52 incidents under review in 2022. But so far, only four of these cases have progressed to criminal proceedings, including the deaths of Carl Angelo Arnaiz in Navotas City; Richard Santillan and Gessamyn Casing in Cainta City, Rizal; Sharif Amatonding in San Pedro, Laguna; and Sawadjaan, Bacalzo, and Hofer in Zamboanga del Norte.

Sawadjaan said the wheels of justice have been excruciatingly slow to turn. The last court hearing on their case was two years ago, leaving them to wonder if they would ever see a resolution in their lifetime.

Beacon of hope

For Charmaine Hofer Ele, the sister of Angelo, Duterte’s arrest was about justice for every victim of what she called the “bogus war on drugs.”

“Finally, there is hope. If local courts continue to drag their feet, at least the ICC has shown that justice is possible,” she said.

Now, she hopes that the arrest of the former president will be the push needed for Philippine courts to take action on their case.

Ele said, “I am confident now that the court will take the cue from this arrest.”

For these families, the fight is far from over. But today, after years of despair, they dare to hope again. – Rappler.com