Tag Archives: davao death squad

davao death squad, extrajudicial killings, HUMAN RIGHTS

PANELO: ICC cannot probe Duterte for drug war deaths

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President Rodrigo Duterte cannot be investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes alleged to have been committed in the country’s war on drugs because the ICC does not have jurisdiction in the country.

For this,  Duterte will not cooperate with the ICC’s probe into the drug war, the Philippine President’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

Spokesman hits ICC’s ‘blatant’ interference in Philippine domestic affairs

 September 16, 2021

MANILA – Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo slammed the “blatant and brazen” attempt of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to meddle in the Philippines’ domestic affairs, particularly its handling of the rampant illegal drug trade in the country.This, after… Read More

CRIMINAL COURT probe to include Davao Death Squad killings

Duterte “will not cooperate since first of all, the Philippines has left the Rome statute, so the ICC no longer has jurisdiction over the country,” Panelo said on Thursday in a radio interview. “The government will not let in any ICC member to collect information and evidence here in the Philippines, they will be barred entry.”

ICC okays probe into Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’

davao death squad, extrajudicial killings, PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. DUTERTE

CRIMINAL COURT probe to include Davao Death Squad killings

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) probe on crimes against humanity under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte will not be limited to the thousands allegedly killed in the government’s bloody war on drugs from the start of the President’s term in 2016.

The probe will include the reported hundreds of deaths of civilians in summary executions by the Davao Death Squad in Davao City before Duterte became the President.

The ICC on Wednesday,September 15, approved the conduct of a full investigation into crimes against humanity during the Philippines’ so-called war on drugs under Duterte.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a so-called court of last resort and only becomes involved in probing the world’s worst crimes if its member states are unable or unwilling to do so.

 In its decision, the ICC said it “authorizes the commencement of the investigation into the Situation in the Philippines, in relation to crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court allegedly committed on the territory of the Philippines between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019 in the context of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ campaign.”

Basing on the specific dates whenthe crimes were committed, , the ICC will look not only at Duterte’s bloody war on drugs during his term as the President from 2016, but also at killings by the so-called Davao Death Squad when Duterte was mayor and vice mayor of Davao City.

“It appears, on the basis of the supporting material, that the killings in the Davao area between 1 November 2011 and 30 June 2016 show a certain pattern and may constitute crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the Court,” said the ICC.

davao death squad, extrajudicial killings, HUMAN RIGHTS, human rights violations, illegal drugs, PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. DUTERTE

ICC okays probe into Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’

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The International Criminal Court on Wednesday,September 15, approved the conduct of a full investigation into crimes against humanity during the Philippines’ so-called “war on drugs” under Philipine President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a statement, the ICC said its judges “found there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, noting the specific element of the crime against humanity of murder.”

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a so-called court of last resort and only becomes involved in probing the world’s worst crimes if its member states are unable or unwilling to do so.

The ICC handed down its decision even as Manila left the court in 2019 following a preliminary probe into Duterte’s crackdown claimed by human rights groups to have killed thousands of civilians.

But the judges said that even though the Philippines had withdrawn as a state party to the court, the alleged crimes took place while Manila was still a signature to the court’s Rome Statute, so it could still probe them. The probe will cover the period from 2011 to 2019.

extrajudicial killings, HUMAN RIGHTS, human rights violations, summary killings

GO TO HELL: Duterte tells UN rapporteur

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Don’t meddle with Philippine affairs

A United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Diego Garcia-Sayan should not interfere with Philippine affairs, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said Saturday.

Duterte made this remark in response to the UN rapporteur’s concerns on the President’s alleged public threats against ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

“Tell him not to interfere with the affairs of my country. He can go to hell,” Duterte said in a press conference before departing for his first official visit to South Korea slated June 3-5.

“That’s an internal problem of the country. You should not meddle it — with it, rather,” he added.

Duterte said that he neither consider Garcia-Sayan as a “special” person nor recognize his rapporteur title.

He reiterated that he never interfered with Sereno’s ouster and that it was all Solicitor General Jose Calida’s doing.

“Sinabi ko na sa kanya wala akong pakialam diyan sa (I said I don’t care about that) impeach — ah sa quo warranto. Calida is doing it,” Duterte said.

Voting 8-6, the Supreme Court (SC) granted on May 11 the quo warranto petition filed by Calida against Sereno.

Duterte said anyone was free to ask any lawmaker if he had pressured them into impeaching Sereno.

Harry-Roque (1)

UN rapporteur ‘misinformed’ on Sereno ouster: Roque

Malacañang earlier said Garcia-Sayan has been misinformed when he reportedly said judicial independence in the Philippines is under threat.

“We find it unfortunate that Mr. Diego Garcia-Sayan has been misinformed on the case surrounding the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press statement.

Roque reiterated that President Rodrigo Duterte’s “dislike” of former chief justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno is not an attack on the judiciary or an affront to judicial independence.

“It is a reaction to the allegations made by former CJ Sereno against the Chief Executive in many public fora saying the latter is behind her impeachment/quo warranto petition,” he said.

He said Malacañang recognizes the SC’s independence and respects the separation of powers among the three branches of government. (PNA)

DUTERTE FOR PRESIDENT 2016 MOVEMENT

JOURNALIST: DUTERTE OUT TO KILL ME!

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lustreIn fear, a journalist has issued a pre-mortem statement that the trail should lead to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte if he is murdered.

After crossing the path of the mayor,  journalist Philip Lustre Jr. could be having nightmares.
Duterte, widely known for his iron-fist anti-criminality campaign in his city, is accused by human rights groups as behind summary executions of suspected criminals especially drug dealers.
The Human Rights Commission (CHR) in the past had investigated Duterte for his alleged link to the extrajudicial killings and the deadly sweet-shooting .45-cal.-armed Davao Death Squad (DDS) blamed for the hundreds of executions of criminals.
Lustre in his Facebook account had claimed that Duterte, a strong contender to the presidency in the 2016 election, ia not running because he suffers from throat cancer.
Duterte had reacted strongly to the claim he said was false and accused Lustre as a propagandist of Liberal Party presidential bet Mar Roxas.
Duterte said Lustre’s claim was black propaganda.
Lustre has stood by his claim and said  Duterte supporters with fake Facebook accounts have been bullying him in the social media.
I have been subjected to cyberbullying and all forms of verbal abuse using the Internet. I have been threatened with physical harm too by guys who use fake accounts. I have been a victim of black propaganda too, Lustre said in his latest Facebook post.
He said he had also received death threats.
“If I fall victim to any form of physical harm, you know who is the culprit,” he wrote.
ABOUT GOVERNANCE, davao death squad, rodrigo duterte, THE DURIAN BEAT

THE DDS OF THE OTHER KIND

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dds1

BY ROGER M. BALANZA
The acronym DDS is morbid, means the Davao Death Squad, the dreaded shadowy gunmen almost always blamed when a criminal is gunned down.
RBAD

Dabawenyos trumpet their city as one of the most livable and safest cities in the world and would have no qualms about saying that the DDS helped in curbing down criminality.
The apparent public tolerance has been assailed by human rights group as part of the culture of violence being allegedly cultivated by police and the local government under Mayor Rodrigo Duterte whom they say are behind the vigilante killers.
But the Davao public does not care. The DDS stirs fear and criminals leave the city before they are shot to death.
For those who remain to terrorize the city, their days of vertical living are counted. Soon, the police or the DDS would catch up and consign them to another dimension, dead and horizontal six feet under the ground.
But there is another DDS in Davao City.
dds2Unlike the DDS armed with .45s, this DDS does not shoot people but targets plans, programs and strategies for social and economic development.
This DDS is the Duterte Development System (DDS).
Like the sweet-shooting killer DDS, this other DDS has no face but has an omnipresence in the life of the Dabawenyos.
This DDS is a matrix of people, working together or alone to contribute to the over-all mission of goodness for their city.
It is a faceless concept of collaboration and cooperation among the Davao public, the bureaucracy, the business sector and other grooupings with the common vision to make their city fly.
JOKERThe DDS is the CityENRO street sweeper (aka DDS or Dala Dala Silhig in Bisdak) with a broom in hand early morning picking up garbage in the streets to make the city clean; it is that gardener working under heat of sun or cold of the rain who make street landscapes beautiful.
The honest taxi drivers and the disciplined sidewalk vendors are part of the hoi polloi that provides the spirit and the energy to the DDS.
There is a DDS in the city government bureaucracy: people in the various departments responding to need for food, health, education, environmental protection and other needs of the constituents, with speed, honesty and transparency.
And there is the head of the DDS himself, Duterte, now on his more than 20 years of serving the Dabawenyos.
There are members of the DDS in the business, religious, academic and other sectors and in the ranks of the civic clubs and the GOs and NGOs who help make the road to peace and progress easier.
The barangays have full of DDS: village officials and volunteer workers tending to children, women and the elderly, and barangay tanods who keep the peace.
The fact is everybody in the city, except the criminals and other elements out to disrupt the economic stability and peace of the city, are members of this DDS.

This DDS is real and has been in existence since 1988, when Duterte first stepped into City Hall as mayor.
Since then until today the DDS is on a shooting spree hitting targets to achieve peace, development and social and economic progress.
Among others, these are the trophies of the DDS productive rampage:
The local government has become a working model for excellence and often visited by other local government units in search of programs for adoption.
Transparency in government is high with the city ranking low in audits for presence of corrupt practices by both government and private monitoring bodies.
Peace and order is stable, with the local police consistent with high ratings in the annual review of the Philippine National Police. Crime index hovers near zero ground. In the latest ranking of Numbeo.com, Davao City is placed as No.9 among safest cities of the world.
It is among few cities in the world with an on-call no-fee 911 Emergency Response Unit.
Davao City is considered as the financial capital of Southern Mindanao if not the whole of Mindanao; it’s current annual revenue is placed at P6 billion, among the biggest in for an LGU in the Philippines.
There is a construction boom and a tsunami of investors is flooding the city.
Davao City is considered as the fastest growing city in Mindanao.
It is home to a mix of regional groupings from Visayas and Luzon living in harmony with lumads and Muslims.
-oOo-
Duterte is being accused by human rights groups as behind the DDS, of the killer variety. He has denied it.
But at the same time, he owns up to being the head of the DDS, of the other kind, which is the Duterte Development System.
Yes, I am the DDS, he said.
There is a joke here. Duterte admitting and denying being the DDS.
Human rights groups looking for a DDS need not go far if they do their search in Davao City.
Every Dabawenyo is a DDS.
But they will get nothing if they want to link the mayor to the summary executions.
Because the DDS of the real kind would be testifying about the real DDS headed by the mayor: the Davao Development System that has made what Davao City is today: the premier city of Mindanao and home to 1.5 million Dabawenyos who are happy and safe with their lives.