A group led by a Roman Catholic bishop in the Philippines launched a fact-finding body Wednesday to document accounts of witnesses and other details of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-drugs crackdown that the government can use to prosecute law enforcers.
Duterte, who ended his stormy six-year presidency in 2022, was arrested last year and taken to the Netherlands, where he is facing trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity over the killings.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, Duterte’s loyal ally and his former national police chief, who first enforced the bloody crackdown, is wanted by the ICC as a co-perpetrator for some of the thousands of killings, which alarmed Western governments and human rights groups.
Raul Pangalangan, a respected Philippine lawyer, who has served for years as an ICC judge, said the commission he will head “was created to ensure that the stories of victims, survivors, and families are heard, verified, and preserved.”
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Philippine Bishop and Ex-ICC Judge Lead New Inquiry into Thousands of Duterte-Era Killings
05/27/2026
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