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MANILA, Philippines – The roundups in Bulacan and Caloocan in 2017 and 2018, or dubbed the ‘one time, big time (OTBT) police operations, are among the handpicked cases of the prosecutor in charging former president Rodrigo Duterte of crimes against humanity.
Prosecutor Karim Khan charged Duterte of being an indirect co-perpetrator of the killing of 19 people by the Davao Death Squad, and 24 people in the name of his war on drugs, according to the unsealed warrant of the ICC.
Of the 24 killings in the war on drugs, eight were part of the one time, big time operations by the police in 2017 and 2018, mostly in Bulacan. Only one was from Caloocan. Nine more killings in the case set were from Bulacan but they weren’t specified to be one time, big time operations.
This is according to the prosecution’s application for a warrant, but specific details were redacted.
We do know that for 24 hours from August 15 to 16 in 2017, Bulacan police killed 32 people, and arrested 107, all perpetrated under the name of the war on drugs. President Rodrigo Duterte later said that he was pleased by the operation. “Maganda ‘yun (That’s good),” he said. The Bulacan police chief back then was Romeo Caramat Jr, who would rise the ranks of the Philippine National Police (PNP) until he retired in October.
Caramat was among five people that ICC sought to talk to last year. That list included Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, who is repeatedly mentioned in the application for warrant as the one who formalized the policy. Oplan Tokhang’s launch through Dela Rosa’s circular “was immediately followed by a marked increase in killings. Such killings were endorsed by Duterte’s administration,” said the application.
Kian delos Santos, the 17-year-old teen, was killed in that one time, big time operation, but in Caloocan. There is one Caloocan one time, big time case in the application for warrant, but it’s uncertain if this is that of Delos Santos. Local cops have been convicted over this murder, the first of only four convictions in the war on drugs. The chief of the Bulacan police that time was Chito Bersaluna. He was also Caloocan City police chief when Delos Santos was killed. He was later promoted to Bulacan provincial police chief.
Rappler’s investigation in 2021 showed that vigilantes were able to kill over 500 in Bulacan from 2016 to 2017, with several of those cases concentrated in select areas. This gave rise to accusations that police tolerated, or maybe even sanctioned, vigilante killings.
There were also two Bulacan one time, big time operations in 2018 mentioned in the list of cases. There were 9 Bulacan operations that were not specifically one time, big time. Further details were also redacted, but we know that on May 30, 2018, Bulacan launched a one time, big time operation that killed 8 people.
“The murders were perpetrated by members of Philippine law enforcement, sometimes with the assistance of non-police assets, against targets labelled as high-value for their alleged involvement in drug syndicates,” said the application.
Prosecutor Khan called it the “common plan” and connected the DDS to design to the war on drugs design.
Why so few cases?
Human rights groups say as many as 30,000 were killed in the name of the war on drugs, 7,000 of those were admitted to have been killed by cops claiming to be just performing their duties.
Can the combined 43 killings in the prosecutor’s case set still constitute crimes against humanity?
“There’s no threshold number in the Rome Statute as to the required number of victims that would already make it a crimes against humanity case,” said Ross Tugade, a public international law lecturer at the University of the Philippines (UP), during a forum on Friday organized by the UP College of Law.
The 43 cases are only for the warrant application, “and even then the Chamber said that the material submitted by the prosecution relates to a non-exhaustive list of incidents,” said Maria Elena Vignoli who is a senior international justice counsel at the Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Picking a small case set is also not uncommon, according to Vignoli.
“In cases of mass atrocities, it is not uncommon for prosecutors to chose charges focused on a few emblematic cases that are representative of the crimes they are trying to prove, given how widespread the violations are,” said Vignoli.
Still, the prosecution “needs to provide evidence to the broader context of the widespread and systematic nature of the crimes,” Vignoli added.
A co-perpetrator
The warrant and the application indicate that Duterte is not charged under the principle of command responsibility, but rather as an indirect perpetrator, according to former ICC judge Raul Pangalangan. Duterte is an indirect perpetrator because he is the mastermind, and those who pulled the trigger are the direct perpetrators.
“It’s a debated matter, some people say that a direct perpetrator has more moral culapability compared to the indirect perpetrator,” said Pangalangan.
“The emerging approach in the court is the mode of attribution is simply a way by which to link the accused to the crime, it does not reflect upon the moral culpability of the accused. But that debate continues,” Pangalangan added.
Press undersecretary Claire Castro said the Philippine government will extend the same cooperation to Interpol in case more ICC warrants are coursed through them.
“Hindi po kasi tayo puwedeng mamili, kung ito po ay ginawa po, nakipag-coordinate sa Interpol dahil ang dating Pangulo ay subject ng warrant of arrest, hindi po tayo puwedeng mamili, wala po puwedeng special treatment,” said Castro.
(We cannot be selective, if we did this before and we coordinated with the Interpol when the former president was the subject of the warrant of arrest, we cannot be selective, there can be no special treatment.) – Rappler.com
