MANILA—Partido Lakas ng Masa vice-presidential aspirant Walden Bello on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte should be held accountable for his campaign against illegal drugs that has killed thousands of people.
"We will make sure that if elected that the judicial system in fact prosecutes Duterte for crimes against humanity, the [extrajudicial killings],” Bello told ANC's "In Focus,” adding he and presidential hopeful Leody de Guzman will cooperate with the International Criminal Court.
"That is the only decent way to go. That’s the only way to go for us at this point in time, otherwise, this cycle of human rights violations and absolution and people not paying for their crimes is just going to go on."
The Duterte administration has said the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines because the President in 2018 withdrew the country from the treaty that created the tribunal.
On Tuesday, Interior and Local Government Sec. Eduardo Año said government has recovered more than P74 billion worth of illegal drugs and arrested more than 319,000 drug suspects in the administration's war on drugs since 2016.
The administration has also conducted a total of 221,657 anti-illegal drug operations for the past 5 years, Año added, resulting in the death of 6,221 others. — ANC 21 December 2021