FORMER president Rodrigo Duterte personally drew up “death lists” and boasted about murders committed during his “war on drugs,” an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor alleged Tuesday at a crimes against humanity hearing. On Day Two of proceedings against Duterte, ICC prosecutor Edward Jeremy laid out searing testimony including allegations that children had their heads wrapped in packing tape and were strangled to death. “As president, Duterte publicly named persons he alleged were involved in drugs, and many of those would end up as victims in his so-called war on drugs,” Jeremy said. The “Duterte list” was “basically a death list,” Jeremy quoted a witness as saying, and showing a video of Duterte himself saying: “I am the sole person responsible for it all.” Duterte faces three ICC counts of crimes against humanity, with prosecutors alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders between 2013 and 2018. Prosecutors say this is a “mere fraction” of the thousands believed killed in his “war on drugs” as mayor of Davao City and then president. Nationwide EJK campaign Duterte, with the support of former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, orchestrated a nationwide campaign of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) targeting drug suspects, including minors and high-value targets, prosecutors said. In his presentation, Jeremy outlined two key elements of the alleged crimes: the killings of 14 so-called high-value targets, and the murders and attempted murders of 45 individuals during barangay-level anti-drug operations, known as Project Tokhang. Jeremy told the court that Duterte’s presidential campaign pledged to apply the Davao City model of “zero tolerance” on drugs across the Philippines. “It means that zero tolerance on drugs,” Jeremy quoted one insider witness. “We have to eliminate, neutralize drug pushers just as in Davao.” The evidence showed that Duterte appointed his former Davao co-perpetrators to senior positions, including dela Rosa as PNP chief on July 1, 2016. Within days, dela Rosa issued Command Memorandum Circular 16 2016, formalizing the national anti-drug campaign called Project Double Barrel, which comprised Project HVT and Project Tokhang. The memorandum instructed police to target both illegal drug networks and individuals, using the term “neutralize” — interpreted internally as “to kill.” Jeremy emphasized that this directive effectively legalized the killings of alleged drug suspects, supported by rewards paid outside the regular PNP budget. Narco list Prosecutors highlighted Duterte’s public display of lists of alleged drug offenders, including the “PRRD list,” an Excel-style spreadsheet of individuals categorized from level one street pushers to level five high-ranking figures. Witnesses told the court that being on the list made individuals targets for police operations, with most ultimately killed. Among those named were Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. and Ozamis Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, both of whom were murdered months after their names appeared on the lists. In Espinosa’s case, he was ordered to surrender within 24 hours of Duterte’s public warning and later killed in his jail cell along with Raul Yap, another alleged drug figure. Evidence presented shows CCTV was disabled, guns planted, and rewards paid, while Duterte publicly boasted of the operation and continued to issue death threats against other mayors. Targeting the poor The second barrel, Project Tokhang, focused on barangay-level clearance operations. Jeremy said the campaign disproportionately targeted poor and vulnerable Filipinos who were unlikely to file complaints against police. The prosecution outlined a repeated pattern: individuals were identified through local watchlists, killed during police operations, and falsely recorded as having fought back — “nanlaban” — in police reports. Weapons, drugs, and money were reportedly planted at crime scenes to justify killings. Unofficial rewards were again paid directly by Duterte. Large-scale “one-time big-time” operations were also cited, including an August 2017 Bulacan operation in which 32 people were killed in 24 hours, an incident Duterte publicly praised, reportedly encouraging more killings. Child victims Jeremy further highlighted that children were victims of the anti-drug campaign. In the Tondo inauguration speech, Duterte publicly threatened the public to kill drug users, including children. The prosecution cited the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in Caloocan, who was shot after pleading for his life. In 2018, police were accused of detaining two other children aged 14 and 15, suffocating and strangling them before selling their bodies to funeral homes — a practice Duterte publicly endorsed as a “business opportunity” for the industry. Throughout the presentation, prosecutors highlighted Duterte’s repeated public threats, including drawing his finger across his throat while discussing extrajudicial killings. Witnesses and video evidence were presented to show that these were not rhetorical statements but directives understood by police and co-perpetrators to authorize killings, including those of high-value targets and vulnerable civilians. Jeremy played a clip of Duterte joking about “extrajudicial killings” during a speech. “And in this opulent, gilded, presentation room, the officials laugh along with their president while he boasts about his skills in extrajudicial killing,” said Jeremy. “And outside on the streets of the Philippines, the bodies pile up.” Jeremy alleged that almost 1,500 people had already been killed at the time of this video. The prosecutor said that on two occasions, children aged around 14 or 15 were taken into custody. “On each occasion, the police wrapped the child’s head in packing tape. So no one could hear them scream. And then strangled the child to death with wire,” said Jeremy. “It’s difficult to imagine a more terrifying end to two lives that had barely even begun. And these murdered children were then sold to funeral homes.” The weeklong ICC proceedings are not a trial but a “confirmation of charges” hearing, enabling judges to weigh whether to move ahead with a trial. Duterte, 80, is not in court after exercising his right not to appear. His defense team says he is weak and in cognitive decline. The prosecution and victims counter that he is healthy but does not want to face the loved-ones of victims. The court passed him fit to attend but granted his right to stay away. Once the hearings wrap up Friday, the court will take up to 60 days to decide whether to proceed to a full trial, usually in a written judgment. Duterte’s defense lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, on Monday said his client “maintained his innocence absolutely.” Kaufman argued that while Duterte used “bluster and hyperbole” in his speeches, he also frequently ordered authorities only to shoot in self-defense. Kaufman said Duterte’s fiery speeches made him a “natural target for privately-funded NGOs and human rights activists,” who, he claimed, selectively presented portions of his statements to construct a narrative of criminal intent. “The notorious speeches on which the prosecution relies have been cherry-picked to suit its narrative, while ignoring the many other speeches when the former president tempered his bombastic language by clear reference to the principle of lawful self-defense,” Kaufman said. On Monday, he urged the judges of the International Criminal Court to dismiss the case and permit former president Duterte to reunite with his family and supporters. “We hope that when you conclude your deliberations, Your Honors, that you will dismiss these grievously misplaced and politically motivated charges,” Kaufman told the court. “We will ask you to send Rodrigo Duterte back to his family, and we will ask you to give back to the Filipino people their Tatay Digong,” he added, invoking Duterte’s popular nickname. On Tuesday, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) blasted Kaufman over his comments on the media coverage of the former leader’s war on drugs. At the ICC on Monday, Kaufman described the coverage as “twisted, sensational and controlled by the powerful and the politically-influential.” “Media workers active during the government’s violent anti-narcotics campaign will attest that most corporate media managers and owners were in fact hesitant, if not outright afraid, to go against the popular ‘war’ that also had widespread support in both chambers of Congress,” the NUJP said in a statement on Tuesday. “It was only when the bodies began piling up and intrepid graveyard shift reporters and the ‘Night Crawlers’ insisted on covering and reporting that owners and news desks had to acknowledge the stories and the deaths,” they added. WITH ARIC JOHN SY CUA, AFP