MANILA, Philippines – Tindig Pilipinas, a coalition of various civil society organizations and progressive groups, called on the government to realign the confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) – both under Sara Duterte – to compensate victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK).

“We also demand for the realignment of the combined P650 million confidential and intelligence funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education to a seed fund that will help establish the EJK Truth Commission,” the coalition said during a press conference on Tuesday, September 19.

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“If Vice President Sara Duterte truly wants to gather information for the safety of our nation, one of the best ways to use the said funds is to investigate the thousands of killings under his father’s term so that the six-year horror will not be repeated in the future. If she cannot do this, then she is equally complicit in her father’s crimes against humanity,” Tindig Pilipinas added.

Duterte is the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who waged a bloody war against illegal drugs from 2016 to 2022. Around 30,000 people were said to be killed under Duterte’s drug war, based on the tally of several human rights groups.

For 2024, Duterte is set to receive a total of P650 million in confidential and intelligence funds: P150 million for DepEd, and P500 million for the OVP. 

On Tuesday, Tindig Pilipinas coalition is represented by its convener, former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Ging Deles. Activist priest Father Flavie Villanueva and Kian delos Santos‘ uncle, Randy, were also present in the presser.

The group is urging the government to create the EJK Truth Commission “that will be tasked to uncover, recognize, and document the atrocities committed under Duterte’s drug war, and bring to justice all those who were responsible for the widespread killings.” The creation of the proposed body would entail reparation for the families of the EJK victims killed under Duterte’s drug war.

Former Commission on Human Rights chairperson Etta Rosales said the creation of such commission will contradict the government’s claim with regards to the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s probe into the drug war.

“We cannot allow yet another dark period of violence to remain unresolved. Creating the EJK Truth Commission is a testament to the incapacity of the previous administration to try EJK cases, which we have clearly seen during the entire Duterte presidency,” Rosales said in a statement read during the presser.

The ICC is probing Duterte’s drug war. The court’s appeals chamber recently junked the Philippine government’s bid to appeal the continuation of the probe.

In time for Martial Law commemoration

The call for the creation of the truth commission came two days before the country commemorates the 51st year of the declaration of Martial Law.

“In this same spirit, we seek truth, justice and accountability for the thousands who were extrajudicially killed during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte. His bloody war on drugs destroyed thousands of lives and traumatized generations of Filipinos, many of them from poor communities. We will not wait for another 41 years to get justice,” Tindig Pilipinas noted.

The Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act was passed in 2013, over four decades since the declaration of Martial Law. Through law, “violations of human rights during the Marcos regime were acknowledged by law and documented.” – Rappler.com