For more than eight years, Nanette has been waiting for Rodrigo Duterte to pay
Aldrin Castillo was drinking outside his sister’s house on a Manila night when several men with their faces covered arrived on motorcycles and forced him to kneel on the road with his hands behind his head.
They asked his name, and then he died. A bullet passed through his temple. Others entered his chest, neck and ear.
His mother, Nanette, who learned of her son’s shooting through frantic phone calls, could see some of the holes as she ran to embrace him.
“I was looking for signs of life,” he recalled. “If Aldrin had shown any signs of life, I would have taken him to the hospital immediately. I was asking for an ambulance. The authorities said, ‘Nanette, she’s gone.'”
The date was October 2, 2017. Since then, he has been waiting for Rodrigo Duterte to pay.
Nanette, 58, was among about 50 people, mostly mothers and wives with similar stories, who gathered at an NGO in Manila on Monday night to watch live coverage from the opening day of the former Philippine president’s trial on allegations of crimes against humanity.
Duterte’s case at the International Criminal Court stems from his “war on drugs,” a deadly crackdown on perceived criminals that began in 1988 when he was mayor of Davao City and expanded nationwide when he was elected president in 2016.
He has been detained in The Hague, Netherlands, since his arrest and extradition from the Philippines in March last year.
ICC deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang said the scheduled five-day hearings were “a reminder of the court’s unwavering determination to bring justice to the thousands of victims of mass crimes and atrocities committed in the Philippines.”
It was also “a reminder that those in power are not above the law.”
Human rights groups claim that as many as 30,000 people, including children, were killed by police officers, opportunistic hitmen and members of the Davao Death Squad (DDS). Prosecutors say the killers acted in line with Duterte’s express wishes and, in some cases, financial incentives.
The allegations at the ICC relate to 76 alleged murders dating back to the time the Philippines became a party to the court’s Rome Statute in 2011 to March 2019, when Duterte, as president, withdrew the country from the statute amid the ICC’s preliminary investigations.
His lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, told the court that Duterte was innocent and that the charges were politically motivated; It’s a view shared by millions of die-hard supporters in the Philippines, especially in his hometown of Davao, who see him as a martyr of ordinary people fed up with crime and corruption.
His daughter is Vice President Sara Duterte, who once threatened to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Carrying his father’s brand, He announced last week that he will run for president in 2028.
Kaufman argued that those who committed murders during the war on drugs acted either in self-defense or against Duterte’s warnings to law enforcement not to abuse their authority.
“His rhetoric was calculated to inspire fear and obedience, to instill fear. [would-be criminals’] It is to instill respect for the law in their hearts and minds. Nothing more, nothing less. “That was his intention and it was not a crime,” he said.
The defense’s efforts to release the 80-year-old man due to his age and deteriorating health condition were unsuccessful. However, the court successfully argued that victims should not be forced to appear in court in person, which would anger them.
Joel Butuyan said in court on behalf of the families: “Having Mr. Duterte read and faced with the grave and horrific charges brought against him would constitute a vital component of justice for the victims.”
“This case represents the last boat the victims can board on their journey to seek justice for their loved ones who were brutally murdered on Mr. Duterte’s orders.
“If this chamber does not approve of the accusations and prevents the boat from sailing, the victims will be anchored forever on an island where their nights are filled with the screams and screams of their murdered loved ones.”
Aldrin Castillo, who was 32 when he died, was a welder who planned to move to Saudi Arabia for a better-paying job within a few months. He promised his mother that he would send money home to support the family.
He was a “mama’s boy,” but he was also flawed.
“There was a problem with Aldrin, I’m not going to lie,” Nanette said.
“My son used shabu [methamphetamine]. But it wasn’t a big problem for us because he could control it. We could control it as a family. I don’t hide the fact that my son uses drugs. “I know this and it saddens me as a mother, but I tried to find ways around it.”
He believed the main target was another man from the neighborhood, but Aldrin was still shot while someone was chasing a quota, perhaps before he even had a chance to say who it was.
No one had been held accountable, and Nanette still didn’t know whether these people were undercover police officers or vigilantes, but she suspected the former.
He said he was never even shown a police report.
“This is just the beginning of justice,” he said at the screening Monday night. “Even though Duterte is in The Hague, his collaborators are still in the Philippines.
“I want to be a part of this because I know my son is here watching, too. Maybe he sees this, too, these steps toward justice.”
The hearing to confirm the charges in the Netherlands will continue for the rest of the week. The panel of judges will then have 60 days to decide whether the case should go to trial.
Take notes directly from our foreign country reporters about things that make headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What’s on in the World Newsletter.
Zach Hope is a Southeast Asia correspondent. He is a former reporter for the Brisbane Times.Connect via email.
