The Long Shadow of Duterte's Drug War
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What is the significance of Duterte's arrest?
I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is The Sunday Story, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. This month, Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte was taken into custody. He's now in the Netherlands, where he's facing charges of crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court over his connections to a spree of killings. Those killings were among the brutal tactics Duterte championed in order to combat drug abuse, starting when he was mayor in the 1990s and later as president of the Philippines. NPR's international correspondent Emily Fang has covered the Asia-Pacific region for the last decade and joins us now. Welcome.
Thanks so much for having me, Aisha.
Emily, what do we know about the International Criminal Court's case against Duterte?
How did Duterte's war on drugs escalate?
It has been a long time coming. Duterte became president of the Philippines in 2016, and that very year, he vowed to wipe out drug abuse in the country. And almost immediately after saying that, there was a huge spike in killings outside of the rule of law. These were known as extrajudicial killings, or EJKs, as people in the Philippines now call them in shorthand. And over the next six years, human rights organizations estimate anywhere between 8,000 to 30,000 people were killed like this on the mere suspicion that they used or sold drugs like marijuana, Marijuana or something called shabu, which is a mix of methamphetamines and caffeine that's popular in the Philippines. Sometimes it was the police who were responsible for the killings.
But more often, people were killed by anonymous assailants that residents suspected were linked to Duterte. And that's what's prompted this investigation. And now the arrest of Duterte by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which is in the Netherlands.
What are the next steps for this ICC case against Duterte?
What are the legal proceedings against Duterte?
First, there's going to be an initial hearing where the charges will be formally presented. Then his legal team will have a chance to respond to those charges. And if a judge decides there is sufficient evidence, the case will move to a trial. That will likely last many months. And in a statement Duterte released on his way to The Hague, he said he expects a long legal battle.
How are the families of victims of these killings in the Philippines reacting to the news of his arrest? They're thrilled. They're in shock.
How are victims' families reacting to Duterte's arrest?
There have been very few successful prosecutions to date. And families hope they might get some justice after all these years. But there's also a lot of backlash in the Philippines. After the ICC started investigating Duterte in 2019, he withdrew the Philippines from membership in the court. And now Duterte's main political rival, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is the current president of the Philippines. And perhaps infamously, the Duterte and Marcos families have not been getting along. So last year, Duterte's daughter, Sarah, who is also the country's vice president now, said she fantasized about beheading Marcos Jr. and said she'd hired an assassin to kill him if needed. So the two do not like each other.
Plus, Duterte still has a lot of supporters in the Philippines, and they say Duterte's arrest is not about justice. but about President Marcos trying to eliminate his political rival. All said, this arrest has totally divided the country, and it's played into this Marcos-Tuterte family feud that defines the country's politics.
What is the current state of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines?
And I want to note that although extrajudicial killings have slowed by a lot since Marcos took office, they have not stopped completely. There are hundreds of people a year still being murdered in their homes or on the streets over any suspicions that they use or sell drugs.
So last year, we aired your story looking at the legacy of these killings. Today, we want to come back to this episode since the neighborhoods you visited remain hotspots for death under the current president.
That's right. For this story, I started by visiting a poor area on the outskirts of Manila, the capital. One of the first places I went to was Novaliches. It's just north of Metro Manila, the capital region, and one of the most densely populated parts of the Philippines. Novaliches is a bit of a down-on-its-luck neighborhood, full of twisty, steep alleyways which seriously flood during storms.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the significance of Duterte's arrest?
0:01–0:50
2
How did Duterte's war on drugs escalate?
0:50–1:57
3
What are the legal proceedings against Duterte?
1:57–2:27
4
How are victims' families reacting to Duterte's arrest?
2:27–3:30
5
What is the current state of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines?
3:30–7:56
6
Who is documenting the drug war's impact in the Philippines?
7:56–12:58
7
How does the current administration handle the drug war?
12:58–29:19
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Up First from NPR
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