Connecting the dots

Rodrigo Duterte has always defended his brutal crackdown on the illegal drug scourge as legitimate law enforcement.

The International  Criminal Court (ICC) and human rights groups believe otherwise, saying the thousands killed in his bloody war on drugs when he was president and earlier as Davao City mayor warrant indictment for murder as a crime against humanity.

This accusation requires evidence or reliable testimony that the killings were systematic and state-sponsored, carried out on orders of top government officials.

Unearthing this evidence has been a tough challenge, according to Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, who as Duterte’s last justice secretary was tasked to investigate abuses in the drug war. The probe was launched to show that there was no need for the ICC to step in. Guevarra has said eyewitnesses to the killings, cops who want to turn state witness, and even relatives of those slain have been reluctant to come out.

With only a handful of cases among over 6,000 prosecuted for extrajudicial killings, Guevarra has been accused by critics either of whitewashing the probe, or of not looking hard enough.

Now a police officer has emerged, painting a story that appears to connect the dots and may bolster the case for crimes against humanity.

Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido, testifying at a joint hearing of four committees at the House of Representatives, confirmed long-running suspicions that in Duterte’s drug war, quotas were set for drug suspects killed, with a reward of P20,000 given per kill. Espenido claimed the money came from government intelligence funds, small-town lottery, jueteng lords and Philippine offshore gaming operators.

Whether Espenido’s story will withstand judicial scrutiny remains to be seen. There is no written order related to the drug killings, although there were rumors in the first year of the Duterte presidency that such a document existed.

It will be Espenido’s word against the denials of the persons he has implicated in systematic executions of drug personalities.

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The person at the top of his list, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, has denied ordering drug suspects to be killed when he said they should be “neutralized.”