Charges eyed over harassment of EJK victims, families

MANILA, Philippines — Rabid supporters and trolls defending former president Rodrigo Duterte may soon find themselves in legal trouble over their alleged harassment and trolling of extrajudicial killing victims and their families.

In a statement, support group Duterte Panagutin Europe said it intends to file the charges in The Hague and in the Philippines after several victims and lawyers, including those who attended Duterte’s confirmation of charges hearing in person, were subjected to harassment.

For instance, the group monitored how Sheerah Escudero and Llore Pasco, relatives of drug war victims, were filmed without their consent while in transit in The Hague on Feb. 24.

The footage was then “used as a means to facilitate derogatory remarks from troll armies,” said the network. The two were also in the AI-generated photo showing them supposedly carrying luxury bags.

The network said members of its security team were also filmed without their consent and were subjected to “slanderous comments” on social media.

“What they did are clear violations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming (AVG) in the Netherlands. We are already consulting with Dutch lawyers on this matter,” the Duterte Panagutin Europe said.

“In the Philippines, we will explore filing cyberbullying cases under the Cybercrime Prevention Act. We are preparing to file official police reports to the concerned individuals,” it added.

The group said it will also submit reports to Meta to request the posts to be taken down and “if necessary to take down the said pages or profiles entirely and permanently.”