The Magdalo group on Monday, Oct. 16, called on the Marcos administration to allow the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe the alleged crimes against humanity during the bloody drug war and make former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte accountable.
"We, the Magdalo group, are urging the Marcos administration to allow the ICC investigators into the country in order to make ex-president Rodrigo Duterte accountable for his crimes against humanity," former Senator and Magdalo National Chairman Antonio Trillanes IV said in a statement posted on his social media accounts.
He said his group made the call "in light of recent public admission that he used his Confidential/Intelligence funds to conduct extra-judicial killings on his constituents in Davao City when he was still its mayor."
In 2017, Trillanes and then Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano filed a supplemental complaint before the ICC against Duterte over the alleged extrajudicial killings during his administration's illegal drugs campaign.
"Being the original filers of the ICC case in 2017, we have witnessed and documented the barbaric actions of the past administration, as well as the trauma and hardships that the thousands of victims and their families have suffered," he said.
He stressed that justice for the families and drug war victims "is long overdue."
In a X (formerly Twitter) post on Sunday, Oct. 15, Trillanes posted an 18-second video clip of Duterte who "publicly admitted" that he utilized confidential and intelligence funds to target drug users and pushers when he was still the Davao mayor.
"Ang intelligence fund binili ko, pinapatay ko lahat, kaya gano'n. Yung mga kasama ninyo, pinatigok ko talaga. Ayun ang totoo," Duterte said in an interview during an SMNI program.
The former Senator said they have submitted the video clip to the ICC.
"This is truly an open-and-shut case," he added.
We have submitted to the ICC this video wherein Duterte publicly admitted that he used the Confidential/Intelligence funds to conduct EJKs on his constituents in Davao city when he was still a mayor. This is truly an open-and-shut case. pic.twitter.com/KyJ2xAU60O
— Sonny Trillanes IV (@TrillanesSonny) October 15, 2023
In July this year, the ICC turned down the Philippine government's appeal to stop the probe into the bloody anti-narcotics campaign as well as the killings in Davao City.
