With Duterte at ICC, tokhang survivor seeks justice from Supreme Court

December 6, 2025 | 11:22am

MANILA, Philippines — As former president Rodrigo Duterte awaits trial at the International Criminal Court over the bloody war on drugs, a lone survivor of a tokhang-style operation in 2016 that saw four people dead is still seeking justice from the Supreme Court.

Efren Morillo, a fruit vendor from Payatas, was detained along with four of his friends by policemen in plain clothing. The police would later allegedly tie them up and shoot them, executioner-style.

Morillo survived by playing dead. He would press charges against the police officers at the Ombudsman, but the body would dismiss his case in 2023. A division of the Supreme Court (SC) affirmed this decision earlier in November.

Now, Morillo and his counsel—ICC-accredited lawyers Joel Butuyan and Gilbert Andres—are hoping to elevate the matter to the SC en banc, questioning why the mastermind behind the drug war is behind bars abroad but those who perpetrated it at home have yet to be held accountable.

In their motion for reconsideration, the SC’s dismissal would raise a "potentially absurd situation” where the indirect perpetrator is being tried while those who executed the drug war cannot be prosecuted domestically.

“This case seriously risks becoming an emblematic example of Philippine State inaction—that the Philippines is not investigating or prosecuting the crimes against humanity of murder perpetuated during the Philippine ‘war on drugs,’ as even cases against low-level perpetrators consisting of ordinary charges of murder and frustrated murder — such as those committed against the petitioners’ loved ones — are dismissed summarily despite overwhelming evidence that supports the police respondents’ prosecution,” the petition read.

The motion further asserted that the case had strong evidence—something sorely lacking from many drug war cases.

There were eyewitnesses and a medical assessment that confirmed the execution-style killing of the victims. A court also said that Morillo committed no unlawful aggression, which casts doubt on the police’s “nanlaban” narrative.

“If the Supreme Court finds that the petitioners’ pieces of evidence are not enough to support the prosecution of the respondent police perpetrators, then virtually none of the thousands of killings during the ‘war on drugs’ can ever be prosecuted domestically,” the motion read.

The SC was also to declare that the Ombudsman had committed a grave abuse of discretion when they junked Morillo’s case.

Around 6,000 to 30,000 were killed during the drug war. While Duterte was shipped off to the Hague in March, many of his political allies rallied around him, which, in the eyes of the ICC, proved that he still had a strong influence over national matters.

While political actors continue to debate Duterte’s detainment abroad, the families left behind by drug war victims have yet to be given justice—many of them doubting if such justice can be found in local courts.

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