Relatives of drug war victims receive the cremated remains of their loved ones during a church ceremony in Quezon City on March 28, 2022, as part of Project Arise. Most of the victim's leased gravesites neared its expiry and the cremation was given for free. The project is in line with the Arnold Janssen Kalinga Foundation's Program Paghilom in assisting the families of extrajudicial killing victims in healing and rebuilding their lives. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Thursday said that failures in the Philippine justice system pushed families of drug war victims to seek justice through the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He said the victims' families turned to the ICC because they could not find justice in the country, a sentiment that victims' families have long expressed.

"I think that's one thing that nobody wants to acknowledge is that there was a failure of our justice system for a long time and they had to file their cases in the ICC to get any attention at all from anybody that cared," Remulla said during a Senate committee hearing on foreign relations, regarding the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte. 

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"Because for the longest time ang biktima po, mga namatayan or pamilya nilang napatay o napaslang sa drug war ay wala hong mapuntahan kaya dun po sila nagpunta sa ICC," he added.

(Because for the longest time, the families whose loved ones were killed in the drug war did not have anywhere to run to, that's why they went to the ICC)

The Duterte administration had taken the position that the more than 6,000 "drug personalities" acknowledged killed in law enforcement operations died because they violently resisted arrest.

A Department of Justice review in 2021 only covered 53 cases that the Philippine National Police allowed access to.

That review found that many of the cases lacked supporting documents like ballistics or paraffin tests, autopsy reported, death certificates, and forensic reports.

There have been a few convictions in high-profile cases like those of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos and of Carl Angelo Arnaiz and Reynaldo “Kulot” De Guzman. In both cases, police initially claimed the victims were involved in drugs.

The government also actively worked to undermine attempts to investigate drug war killings, including by vilifying human rights groups and the Commission on Human Rights as being in cahoots with drug syndicates.

The House of Representatives even voted in 2017 to give the CHR a yearly budget of just P1,000.

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IS IT BETTER NOW?

Sen. Imee Marcos, who led the hearing, requested documents from the DOJ, saying she was not aware that "no cases were filed in any courts in the Philippines", a claim that victims did not make.

"Parang inaamin ngayon ng ating mga gabinete na yung ating judiciary system yung ating mga korte di gumagana."

(It is like our Cabinet now is admitting that our judiciary system, our courts, are not working)

Remulla said that the judiciary system is working now, but there was a time when it was not.

"Nagkaroon po tayo ng panahon na talagang wala pong nangyari sa mga kaso ng EJK eh. Ni police report nga po wala eh. Sa drug war po walang blotter," he said.

(There was a time that there really were no developments in cases of extrajudicial killings. There wasn't  even a police report. There was no police blotter report in the drug war)

Remulla added there were cases where victims were listed as having died of cardiac arrests but the bodies had bullet holes in the head.

Marcos, however, cited the conviction of three police officers for the killing of Kian delos Santos as proof that the justice system was not entirely dysfunctional. 

"Kung mas maayos ngayon bakit di na lang magpila ng kaso dito sa Pilipinas? Maayos na pala eh, nag-iba na," she asked.

(If the situation is better now, why not just file a case here in the Philippines? It's better now, you said, it's different now) 

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Remulla responded that this question should be directed at the victims' families who filed the case.