A right path towards achieving peace based on justice

A Statement on the arrest of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte
March 18, 2025

Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them. (Ps. 10:17-18)

After years of crying out for justice, the families of victims of extrajudicial killings during the administration of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte held higher their hopes on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. On that day, the International Criminal Court (ICC), through the Philippine National Police, served the warrant of arrest to the former president for crimes against humanity.

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), joins all people of goodwill in welcoming former Pres. Duterte’s arrest. This is a significant step towards justice for victims of drug-related killings – many of whom were denied due process and, ultimately, the right to life. This marks progress towards accountability, upholding of human rights and God’s gift of human dignity. The arrest is a signal to ending the culture of impunity prevalent in the country.

It is also a right path towards achieving peace based on justice.

During his stint as mayor of Davao City and as president of the Republic, Duterte waged a bloody “war on drugs,” purportedly to eradicate criminality and the illegal drug trade, which he framed as a threat to the safety of Filipinos. However, this campaign resulted in thousands of deaths, disproportionately affecting the poor and marginalized. Their families, already burdened by grief, were pushed deeper into poverty as many victims were breadwinners. Furthermore, among those killed were children – whom Duterte and his chief drug-war implementer, Sen. Bato Dela Rosa, dismissed as mere “collateral damage.”

Human rights advocates repeatedly condemned Duterte’s campaign of mass killings, urging him to address the underlying issues that drive people into drug abuse and criminality. Duterte could have looked into widespread poverty, unemployment, lack of access to social services, the inequitable distribution of resources, corruption, and bad governance. There are also the roots of unpeace. His refusal to heed these calls has now led to his reckoning, as he is now facing the bars of justice for the lives his drug war took, lives he was sworn to protect.

One must recall that former Pres. Duterte unilaterally terminated the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in November 2017. Consequently, he declared the latter, as well as the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), as “communist-terrorist organizations.” After the termination of peace negotiations, he released Executive Order 70, formed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and launched an all-out war against the CPP-NPA-NDFP and “communist terrorist front organizations”. This resulted in rampant red-tagging, filing of trumped-up charges, tokhang-style extrajudicial killings like the “Bloody Sunday” of 2021 in CALABARZON, and other violations on human rights and international humanitarian law. Duterte’s inhumane project included the indiscriminate bombing of communities. The situation worsened when the Legislative bodies, upon his prodding, passed the vague Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL).

As peace advocates, we continue to stand in solidarity with the families of the victims and affirm the sanctity of human life through human rights. We also reiterate our unwavering call for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace process and the government of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to abolish the NTF-ELCAC and other laws like the ATL, which are impediments to the peace process.

May this be a time to bear one another’s burdens, demonstrating through our prayers and actions the Lordship of Jesus Christ on earth. Let us pray and participate in ensuring that God’s justice and righteousness will prevail in the verdict of Duterte’s upcoming trial, revealing how the Lord of all despises evilness, especially the mistreatment of widows and orphans (Exod. 22: 22-25).