02/10/2025
Statement of Hustisya, organization of EJK victims’ kin and other victims of human rights violations, on the Senate reso on Duterte’s house arrest
Thieves protect their own. Murderers shield each other. The Senate’s recent resolution urging house arrest for former President Rodrigo Duterte is proof that our institutions have chosen to side with the perpetrators, not the victims.
This resolution is not about justice. It is about shielding power. It spits on the memory of the thousands of Filipinos slaughtered in Duterte’s so-called “war on drugs” and war against dissent, the poor dragged from their homes, the fathers executed in front of their children, the mothers and sisters who still grieve, the families who continue to search for answers. Instead of accountability, the Senate has chosen denial. Instead of truth, it has chosen betrayal.
The Senators who voted “Yes” have never once sided with the victims. Not once. At every turn, their voice was used not to defend the powerless, but to protect the powerful. Their vote is a vote against the Filipino people, nay, against humanity, a vote against justice itself.
And Duterte himself? He continues to bask in arrogance. Never once has he or his family shown remorse. Did we already forget that on national television and before the world, he openly admitted that he orchestrated and allowed the killings? He spewed hatred, espoused violence, and urged authorities to commit crimes in front of our very eyes. And now, the Senate rewards him with protection and absolution.
The families of victims of Duterte’s drug war were therefore correct in bringing their case before the International Criminal Court. They turned to The Hague because here, in their own homeland, justice is a myth. Our domestic institutions, captured by political compromise and corrupted by complicity, have failed them again and again... and again. The Senate’s latest stunt only confirms this painful reality.
But justice cannot be selective. It must not bend to the will of plunderers and murderers. It must belong to the victims, to those silenced in the streets, to those left behind in the shadows, to those whose dignity cries out louder than the power of any rotten politician.
History will remember where the Senate stood. It will also remember where the people stood. And history will vindicate the victims.
We will not forget. We will not forgive. Justice will be pursued, if not here, then at the ICC, in the streets, or elsewhere, where impunity will finally face its reckoning.
For reference: Atty. VJ Topacio, Hustisya National Board member
